FG to resume oil search in Chad Basin

Weeks after the Chad Basin was liberated from Boko Haram insurgents, the Federal Government has said it will resume oil prospecting soonest in the area.

A representative of the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, said this on Monday.

According to NNPC’s Chief Executive Officer in-charge of Gas and Power, light and heavy duty exploration equipment were being moved into the basin to commence full oil prospecting by the end of 2017.

He said NNPC decided to return to site because of the assurances given to them by the Nigerian military.

Speaking on behalf of NNPC’s Group General Manager, Maikanti Baru, Mohammed said he led a team of officials from Abuja on Monday to “sympathise with the government and people of Borno on the devastating attacks and destructions they had suffered due to the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents.

He said: “We went to Borno to express our full alignment to the ongoing reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement process by government in all the liberated communities.

“Therefore, NNPC wants to appeal and seek where it can come in and assist, because, the rate of devastation is worrisome.

“We were also in the state to inform the people that in the next six weeks, we are going to redeploy our team of experts back to Maiduguri to resume oil exploration with better technology in the Lake Chad Basin.

“This is necessary with our renewed efforts in harnessing, Oil, Gas and Power to increase the economy of the nation, in line with the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari in job creation and economic diversification.”

Borno State has one of the highest victims of insurgents and has been the most hit among the states bedeviled by Boko Haram insurgency.