Borno State in northeastern Nigeria borders Lake Chad but so far has not been found to contain any oil wells despite the fact that Cameroon and Chad, have deposits on their side of the lake. Certain that there must be crude somewhere on the Nigerian side of the basin, the Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC), has said it would commence exploration in the first quarter of next year.
NNDC chairman Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, said that the commission currently collaborating with its technical partners and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the expertise and budgetary requirements for the project. Alhaji Ahmed Musa, the NNDC managing director, noted that it could not start the project as earlier planned due to the security situation in the region.
Alhaji Musa added that the company was constrained by finance and production sharing formula. While noting that NNDC needed the sum of $20m for exploration on each of the four oil blocks which caused part of the delay, Alhaji Musa stressed that modalities were underway to start exploring within the first quarter of 2016.
He said the company would open the exploration in the four oil blocks allocated to it in the Lake Chad Basin, in the first quarter of the year, adding that plans were underway to acquire four more oil blocks in the area. Furthermore, he added that the NNDC had recorded a 42% increase in its income the financial year which ended on March 31, 2015.
Comments
Post a Comment