…Production Starts With 50,000bpd
President Muhammadu Buhari informed yesterday that the oil exploration project in the North East will start with a daily production of about 50,000 barrels of crude oil.
While flagging off the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in the North-East, for the exploration of crude oil in the region, an elated President Buhari announced that already the oil exploration at the Kolmani River has already attracted over $3billion foreign direct investment and will boost Nigeria’s fortunes and earnings.
The NNPC had in 2019 announced the discovery of crude oil in the Kolmani River region at the border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.
Further to this discovery, the newly promulgated Petroleum Industry Act [PIA] Section 9, established the Frontier Exploration Fund (FEF) with the allocation of 30% of the profit from NNPC’s upstream oil and gas contracts for the purpose of oil exploration in Kolmani as well as Anambra, Dahomey, Bida, Chad & Benue Trough.
The President described the Kolmani Integrated Development Project as a fully integrated in-situ development project comprising upstream production, oil refining, power generation and fertilizer.
According to him as a project in a landlocked location, requiring huge capital, the economics of the project is a challenging proposition. Buhari said he had instructed the NNPC 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.
“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 $3billion to this project,” he said
He commended NNPCL and its partners for the successful discovery of oil and gas in the Kolmani River Field.
President Buhari listed the benefits of the project, including “but not limited to Energy Security, Financial Security as well as overall socio- economic development of the country.”
He expressed delight that his administration’s charge to NNPCL 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 her 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-strategize 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 1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion Cubic Feet of Gas within the Kolmani area and the huge potentials for more deposits as we intensify exploration efforts.”
“I urge the NNPC Ltd, NNDC, and their Strategic partners to ensure all lessons learnt from our years of experience as an oil-producing nation are utilized to ensure harmonious relationship with the local communities,” President Buhari stated
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