NNPC to Renew Oil Search in Chad Basin
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is set to resume its search for crude oil in the Chad Basin, its spokesman Ohi Alegbe disclosed on Monday.
The development is in line with a recent declaration by the President-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
Previous search for oil in the area had drawn blank.
On Monday, the NNPC expressed hopes that the basin would yield crude oil in commercial quantities this time round.
It disclosed that the decision to renew the search was due to the remarkable improvement in the level of security in the North-East.
The military has recorded victories against Boko Haram militants in the region in recent weeks.
Federal and multinational troops have also rescued hundreds of persons held captive by the terrorists in the region, a development that has improved the security situation in the North-East.
The NNPC stated that its search for oil in the Chad Basin was halted as a result of the volatile security in the region, stressing that with the feats recorded by the military in the area, the corporation would return to the Basin to continue its search.
Alegbe, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, of the corporation, declared in the statement: “With the remarkably improved security situation in the north eastern part of the country, the NNPC is to resume oil search in the Chad Basin.”
The statement disclosed that the corporation’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Joseph Dawha, made the declaration in Abuja during the 21st Annual General Meeting of a subsidiary of the NNPC, Integrated Data Services Nigeria Limited.
IDSL is carrying out the seismic data acquisition in the Chad Basin.
It quoted Dawha as saying that “preliminary indications from the previous exercise so far are encouraging and we are going to move back there.”
The NNPC boss regretted that the corporation had to suspend its oil exploration activities in the Chad Basin due to the security situation in the region, describing the development as “unfortunate.”
