Buhari orders NNPC to resume oil search in Chad Basin

The President, Muhammadu Buhari, has directed the Nigerian National

Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to resume oil expedition and gas exploration
activities in the inland frontier basins of Northern Nigeria, especially the Chad
Basin and the Kolmani River in the Benue Trough.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, disclosed
this, yesterday, when he received the Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed
Abubakar, in his office in Abuja.
The NNPC, through its Frontier Exploration Services and Renewable Energy
Division (FESRED), had progressed with seismic acquisition activities in the
Chad Basin frontier area until insurgency forced it to suspend its operation
there.
Baru said: “We have exploration activities on the frontier basin, that is in the
Chad, and also there is some area close to the Kolmani River (Bauchi State)
where Shell had made some indicative discovery of hydrocarbons and Mr
President has directed me to go into that area to improve and further explore
the magnitude and prospectivity of those finds.”
He said that the corporation would restrategise with a view to getting into
those regions.
“We will reinvigorate the Frontier Exploration Services and see how they can
collaborate with NNDC that is holding Block 809 where some of the finds have
been found and also the DPR for the other blocks that have not been assigned,”
he added.
Meanwhile, the Association of Inland Basin States of Northern Nigeria
(APIBONN) has reiterated its call for a permanent or stand-alone agency to
oversee exploration of new hydrocarbon deposits in the Frontier Basins in the
North.
The Interim Executive Secretary of APIBONN, Engr. Yabagi Sani, said: “It is
when you have somebody from the North as president, that is why you hear the
NNPC talking about exploration in the North.
“We commend efforts of the governor and the GMD but that is not the solution.
We are agitating for a permanent structure that will outlive this administration,
like getting the National Assembly to quickly pass the bill on inland basin
frontier agency into law, so that we will have a law that will compel whoever is
the president, at any point in time, to continue with these efforts.”