13 November 2016, Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation confirmed on Saturday that it was intensifying its search for crude oil in the North-East geopolitical zone.
The agency also disclosed that it had succeeded in mounting a Global Positioning System monument at the Kolmani oil well in the region.
A group of foreign expatriates and indigenous professionals from the corporation mounted the GPS monument at the oil exploration site, according to Twitter messages from the national oil firm.
President Muhammadu Buhari had about three months ago, directed the national oil firm to explore for crude oil in the North.
The President, in August, directed the national oil firm to commence exploration activities in the Benue Trough.
The Benue Trough is a major geological formation underlying a large part of Nigeria, extending about 1,000km North-East from the Bight of Benin to Lake Chad.
In July, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, stated that the President had directed the corporation to speed up its prospect for oil in the northern region, specifically in the Chad Basin and Kolmani River, following the reported discovery of hydrocarbons by Shell in the area.
Similarly, in a document obtained by our correspondent from the Abuja headquarters of the corporation, it was observed that the national oil firm was already targeting gas in 126 northern basins.
In the document, the NNPC stated that out of a total of 209 oil and gas open acreages for allocation across different terrains in the country, 126 blocks are located in the North, 34 in Niger Delta, 12 in the Anambra Basin, and 37 are situated in t
In its Twitter messages on Saturday, the NNPC stated that the seismic crew moved for several hours in the bush, in a bid to get a favourable location to mount the GPS monument.
“The seismic crew moved for over five hours deep into the bush before reaching their destination; they had three flat tire incidents,” the NNPC said.
The vandalisation of crude oil installations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region had severely reduced the country’s foreign earning exchange earnings, a development that had impacted negatively on the performance of the 2016 budget.
- Punch
