NNPC to Search Deeper for Oil in the North

NNPC to Search Deeper for Oil in the North
  • Upbeat over Dangote Refinery’s capacity to boost domestic refining

John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Nigeria National Petroluem Corporation (NNPC) has pledged to deepen its search for oil in the north.

The corporation has also described the Dangote Refinery, currently under construction, as a project that will assist Nigeria’s quest of attaining 1.095 million barrels per day self-sufficiency in the refining of petroleum products

The Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru stated this yesterday in an interview with journalists at the 40th Kaduna International Trade Fair .

According to him, a deeper search of oil would enable the NNPC an extensive appraisal of the gas reserves discovered in the region in 1999.

He added that the NNPC was working on the Kolmani River II with high hope and expectations, adding that President Muhammadu Buhari had personally urged the corporation to go back to exploration on the Kolmani River II.

He said drilling has been going on smoothly, stressing that as at Wednesday morning, the corporation had dug 10,075 feet deep with a target to reach 14,270 feet exploration.

According to Baru, “the main purpose of this well is to start some massive appraisal of the discovery that was made way back in 1999 of some gas reserves in Kolmani River 1 and so far the drilling has been going on smoothly to enable exploration.

“We will do the needful, if we need to probe any particular section, we will take our time to do it; our target date is to see that by the end of May, we complete exploration on that particular well and move to Kolmani River III, which site is almost ready for the rigs to move there and from there we move to other locations”.

Speaking earlier at the NNPC Day at the fair, Baru said the annual fair was an opportunity for stakeholders and long term exhibitors like the cooperation to take stock of their participation through the years with a view to consolidating on areas of strength, while working on avenues for improvements.

Meanwhile, NNPC has described the Dangote Refinery, as a project that will assist Nigeria’s quest of attaining 1.095 million barrels per day self-sufficiency in the refining of petroleum products.

Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, NNPC, Mr. Bello Rabiu, disclosed this yesterday at the on-going Nigeria Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Speaking on ‘Upstream Opportunity in the Oil and Gas Sector’, Rabiu commended the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote for his commitment to Nigeria’s downstream sector.

According to him, the coming on stream of the Dangote 650,000 barrels-per-day Refinery and efforts by NNPC to revamp the country’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, would help Nigeria to achieve zero importation of refined petroleum products.

Speaking during a technical session on “Infrastructure as a Key Enabler for Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Sector”, Executive Director, Dangote Group, Ahmed Mansur, said private sector investment and execution capacity in the Nigeria gas sector need to complement government’s efforts in the industry.

Mansur said the Dangote Group catalyses private investment to supplement the federal government’s onshore gas development agenda.

He added that the company is building pipeline infrastructure that would augment the natural domestic gas supply and add an estimated 12,000 Mega Watts (MW) to Nigeria’s power generation capacity.

Mansur noted that the first phase of the project is expected to deliver gas for the use of Dangote Industries, including the proposed fertilizer plant in the refinery complex, and other identified industrial and power plant users.

“The pipeline infrastructure will create a corridor for evacuation of trapped gas from offshore platforms in Nigeria to allow their monetisation.

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