By Modupe Gbadeyanka
On Tuesday, November 22, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria attracted a $3 billion investment in fossil energy at a time when the oil and gas sector was becoming less attractive.
He said this was achieved by his administration as a result of the policies put in place to make the industry attractive to investors, especially with the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) into law.
“It is, therefore, to the credit of this administration that at a time when there is near zero appetite for investment in fossil energy, coupled with the location challenges, we are able to attract investment of over $3 billion to this project,” Mr Buhari said at the flag-off ceremony of the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in Bauchi today.
The Kolmani Integrated Development Project is a fully integrated in-situ development project comprising upstream production, oil refining, power generation and fertilizer.
“Considering the land locked location and the huge capital requirement, the economics of the project is a challenging proposition.
“Consequently, from the outset, I instructed NNPC Limited to utilize and leverage their vast asset portfolio across all corridors of its operations to de-risk the project to attract the much-needed investment,” he stated.
While commending NNPC and its partners for the successful discovery of crude oil in the Kolmani River Field, the President stated that the huge investment the project had attracted “will surely be a reference subject for discussion in the industry as we pursue the just energy transition programme that will culminate in our country achieving net-zero position by the year 2060.”
Noting the huge benefits the project brings to the country including “but not limited to Energy Security, Financial Security as well as overall socio-economic development of the country,” President Buhari affirmed that his administration’s charge to NNPC to explore other oil and gas fields beyond the Niger Delta Basins has finally yielded commendable results.
“This is indeed significant considering that, efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the established Niger Delta Basin was attempted for many years without the desired outcomes.
“However, the successful discovery of the Kolmani Oil and Gas field by NNPC and its partners has finally broken the jinx by the confirmation of huge commercial deposits of hydrocarbons in Kolmani River field.
“This discovery had emanated from our charge to the NNPC to re-strategise and expand its oil and gas exploration footprints to the frontier basins of Anambra, Dahomey, Sokoto, Benue trough, Chad and Bida Basins. Similar activities across the other basins are currently actively on-going.
“We are pleased with the current discovery of over one billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion cubic feet of gas within the Kolmani area and the huge potential for more deposits as we intensify exploration efforts.”
Adedapo Adesanya