OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Group Managing Director, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has called on foreign investors to explore the Nigerian Ultra-Deep terrain.
The NNPC chief made the call at 19th CERAWeek in Houston.
He described the country’s offshore as “largely untested”.
He cited the 2016 ExxonMobil’s 1 billion barrels offshore crude oil discovery, adding that Nigeria is a hotspot for investment.
Baru alao said the NNPC’s current drilling of Kolmani River-II Well in the Benue Trough – one of Nigeria’s several frontier inland Basins, is capable of producing about 400 BCF of gas.
Exxon Mobil’s discovery of one billion barrels oil was made at the Owowo field, offshore Nigeria.
Owowo-3 was safely drilled to 10,410 feet (3,173 meters) in 1,890 feet (576 meters) of water. The Owowo field spans portions of the contract areas of Oil Prospecting License 223 (OPL 223) and Oil Mining License 139 (OML 139). The well was drilled by ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater Ventures) Limited and proved an additional resource in deeper reservoirs.
Shell had in 1996, drilled the Kolmani River I but there was not enough hydrocarbon discovery in it.
President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Kolmani River II well in February.
The well is one of the sites of the ongoing oil drilling by Frontier Exploration, a subsidiary of the NNPC.
