The quest by the present Nigerian government administration leads by President Muhammadu Buhari to see that crude oil exploration in the Northern region of the country comes to fruition has recently taken positive direction. The recent virtual inauguration of the President for the first oil drilling of the Ebenyi-A Exploration Well located in the Middle Benue Trough in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State is a vivid testament to this laudable commitment.

The Nigeria President whose official tenure is believed to be gradually coming to end owing to recently held presidential election this year has performed the virtual spud-in ceremony of the Well in his live broadcast caution the National Oil Company and the other stakeholders to take cognizance of the prevailing global energy transition pursuit in carrying out  the oil exploration activities in line with best global practices while considering all environment factors as they might affect the host communities in particular and the nation at large.

President Mahamadu Buhari reiterated oil exploration in trough and Gongola basins as a veritable investment as it is in line with the ongoing campaigns to explore crude oil and gas in the nation’s Frontier Basins, thereby bridging the energy mix gap and reducing energy poverty in Africa. The Nigeria frontier basins according to Mr. Buhari include: the Chad Basin, Dahomey Basin, Anambra Platform, the Calabar Embankment, Sokoto Basin, Bida Basin, Benue Trough, as well as the Ultra-Deepwater Niger Delta.

“Today’s occasion marks the official commencement of exploration drilling activities in the Middle Benue Trough. This is consistent with the commercial discoveries of hydrocarbons in the Kolmani Area of the Upper Benue Trough. “I am pleased to note that activities are ongoing to develop the Kolmani petroleum discoveries to commercial production to add to the nation’s considerable hydrocarbon assets,” by President Muhammadu Buhari, stated.

Present live at the ground breaking epoch spud-in event were The Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and Group CEO of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, among   other dignitaries in the persons of Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Emir of Lafia, Bage Muhammad and some royal fathers.

In his speech, CEO of NNPC, Mele Kyari expressed his happiness that all pains taken efforts of the corporation in seeing that oil is discovered in the all the nation’s frontier basins are yielding positive results.

“This is a special occasion for us at the NNPCL and NUPRC, the Nasarawa people and Nigeria as we spud the first well in the Middle Benue Trough, while executing Mr. President’s mandate for us to pursue exploration in the frontier inland basins with vigor. I am encouraged by the enormous work done by NNPC Limited to exploit the prospects in the Middle Benue Trough, leading to the event of today,” CEO of NNPC, Mele Kyari , expressed.

“I am encouraged by the enormous work done by  NNPC Limited to exploit the prospects in the Middle Benue Trough, leading to today’s event. I congratulate NNPC , NUPRC & other partners for their immense contributions towards making this event possible.

“Furthermore, I am happy that the consequent positive outcomes of these drilling campaigns will lead to greater prosperity for our people and especially enhance overall energy security for our Country, ” he added.

Nigeria Crude Oil Exploration Takes Historic Twist As Kolmani Oil Field Integrated Development Project Takes-off

The recent discovering of hydrocarbon deposits in a commercial quantity in the kolmari River-11 well on the upper Benue through, Gongola Basin in the north eastern part of the country is seen as a very welcomed development in bridging this gap of tilted economic source of revenue for the country.

The Nigeria exploration and production of crude oil is expected to take historic demission as African top crude oil producing country is set to conduct a ground-breaking ceremony of the Kolmani OPL 809 and 810 located in Bauchi and Gombe states by the President Mohammadu Buhari.

This historic event is coming barely about two years after the mineral resource was discovered in the region. This is a major boost to the efforts by the federal government to ensure that this all important resource is evenly distributed across the region and in commercial quantities will add to the country crude production as the country faces massive crude oil theft and security in the northern region.

The Kolmani Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field of Gongola Basin is located in Bauchi and Gombe states comprising th Northern region of the country Nigeria.

he event is expected to be graced by major stakeholders in the nations oil and gas sector, top government executive and global energy investors which will include the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Timipre Sylva and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, among others dignitaries.

It also proposed an onsite midstream refinery and power plant, saying that this would allow it to use these resources for local needs as well as “create an industrial hub” to provide economic benefits and employment.

At some point in the development of the facilities, in the midstream, the plan would involve a 150 MW power plant and a 50,000 barrel- per day condensate refinery.

The NPDC, as it was then called, had drilled the Kolmani River 2 well in 2019 and the Kolmani River 3 in early 2021. The new piece of legislation has now raised funding for frontier exploration to 30 per cent, which implies that the NNPC Limited would have more funds to develop oil fields around the country.

According to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Nigeria currently has crude oil reserves of about 37 billion barrels. Kolmani fields could hold as much as one billion barrels crude oil reserve, which could significantly raise Nigeria’s oil reserve.

Kolmani oil field integrated development project Being an integrated project, the 1st phase will entail an in-situ Oil Refinery of up to 120,000 bpd capacity, an estimated reserve of about one billion barrels of crude oil, a Gas processing plant of up to 500 million standard cubic feet per day, a Power Plant of up to 300-megawatt capacity, and a Fertilizer Plant of 2,500 tons per day,

In another phase of the project, there’ll be a Downstream Oil Terminal/depot for offtake and distribution of the white products coming out of the refinery & further development of the integrated project, ultimately posing great value for our country specifically in areas of over 2000 directly and indirectly labor opportunities.

The oil blocks OPL 809 and 810 are owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as concessionaire with New Nigeria Development Company Ltd, Africa Oilfield movers Ltd, and SEEPCO as partners. The search of Oil and Gas in the frontier basins of Nigeria has been on for decade now and discovering of this world essential commodity in the northern region of the country has been seen as a tall order despite enormous huge resources embedded in the search. The inability to discover oil and gas in commercial quantity despite million of dollar invested so far has been a source of worries to all stakeholders. Unlike the southern region of the country, oil discoveries have been seen by most energy investors as prevalence to return of investment which financial risk factor is highly minimal.