By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Government disclosed that it has discovered crude oil amounting to one billion barrels in North Eastern Nigeria.
This was made known by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) on Wednesday.
Speaking at the event, Mr Sylva stated, ”The figure is not totally out yet but from the evaluation results we are getting, the reserve that has been discovered in the North-East is about a billion barrels.
“Those are the kind of figures we are seeing and we are beginning to understand the geological structure of the region,” he said.
Although he did not clarify the specific location, he, however, said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in 2019 began oil exploration in Kolmani River, part of the Benue Trough.
This was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration plan to encourage exploration of crude in the Chad basin and has since spent millions of dollars on the project, adding that there was need for more exploration in the country as more oil would be discovered.
Speaking on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Minister noted that by mid-2020, the bill would be passed based on cordial relationship between the legislature and the executive.
“We are banking on the fact today to make that promise on the fact that there is a very cordial relationship now between the legislature and executive.
”Today, Nigerians all agree that there is a need for us to pass the PIB.
”For so long we have been quivering about the PIB, for more than 20 years. And for so long, we have not been able to attract a lot of investment into the oil sector.
”Let me give you an example, by the year 2002, our oil reserves stood at around 22 billion barrels. We were able to grow that reserve from 22 billion barrels to 37 billion barrels by 2007.
”From 2007 to now, we have only been able to grow our reserves from 37 billion barrels to 37.5 billion barrels, in more than 10 years. Why? Not much investment is coming into Nigeria.” He added.
In October last year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Friday, announced that it has discovered crude oil, gas and condensates in the Kolmani River region at the border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.
The discovery came after eight months of crude oil exploration the Kolmani River II Well on the Upper Benue Trough, Gongola Basin after President Buhari last February flagged off the Drilling of the well.
