Abuja — Nigeria plans to grow oil reserves from the current 37 billion barrels to 40 billion barrels by 2025, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday at the official ground-breaking of the Oil Prospecting Licenses, OPLs, 809 and 810 at the Kolmani River II well, located at a border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.
The Kolmani Integrated Development Project was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari with some top government officials, including governors, cabinet members, captains of industry and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, NNPCL, officials, among others, in attendance.
“The commencement of drilling of Kolmani fields, which could hold as much as 1 billion barrels crude oil reserve, will significantly contribute in boosting our oil reserves and ensuring our continuous energy sufficiency,” Sylva said.
He added: “This is a testimony of the fact that the hydrocarbons sector still holds promise of returns on investment, highlighting the role that this resource will continue to play in the global energy mix.”
The NNPC had in 2019 announced encountering oil in commercial quantities at the Kolmani River well II. The company is carrying out the development drilling campaign at the Kolmani fields in partnership with Sterling Global Oil and New Nigeria Development Commission, NNDC, a company owned jointly by the Nigeria’s northern states.
“The commencement of drilling of Kolmani fields which could hold as much as one billion barrels crude oil reserve, will significantly contribute in boosting our oil reserves and ensuring our continuous energy sufficiency,” the minister stated.
The Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, in his speech at the occasion, said the discovery of oil and gas deposit in commercial quantities at the Kolmani oil field in 2019 was appraised and validated by a team working on the Kolmani project.
He thanked the Bauchi and Gombe states governments and NNPCL’s partners, saying the development of framework for the project was put in place to guarantee financing and technology required to deliver the integrated project.
President Buhari on Tuesday commissioned the Kolmani Integrated Development Project of Oil Prospecting Licenses, OPLs, 809 and 810 at the Kolmani Field Site that straddles Bauchi and Gombe states.
It is expected that the first project will entail an oil refinery of up to 120,000 barrels per day, gas processing plant of up to 500 million standard cubic per day, a power plant of up to 300 megawatt capacity and a fertiliser plant of 2,500 tons per day.
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