The Nigeria targets to increase its hydrocarbon reserves to 50bn barrels are gradually coming to fruition. Barely less than one week to the exit of the current administration of the African second largest crude oil producer, the Nigeria President Mr Muhammadu Buhari has flagged off another crude oil drilling campaign of the Wadi-B Well in Borno State. The Wadi B well is which located in Jere local government area is about 50 kilometres away from the state capital Maiduguri.

Owing to recent passage of Petroleum Industrial Act PIB the present federal government has keyed in to maximized the opportunities available in development the frontier exploration region of the country. Nigeria’s frontier basins include Lake Chad, Gongola, Anambra, Sokoto, Dahomey, and Bida basins as well as the Benue trough

The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) stipulates that a frontier exploration fund shall be created and the Fund which shall be 30% of NNPC Limited’s profit from oil and gas as in the production sharing, profit sharing, and risk service contracts. The PIA directs NNPC Limited to transfer 30% of its oil and gas profit to the Fund and that money should be dedicated to the exploration of frontier acreages in Nigeria.

According to the information provided by the nation’s petroleum authority the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the Wells will be spud at a total depth of 14,000 feet and the well is proven to contain commercial hydrocarbon prospect

“The re-mobilization of a drilling rig to the Chad Basin for the first time since the 1980s efforts indeed underscore the visionary leadership of Your Excellency, Mr. President, and today, we are honored to have him bring back hydrocarbon exploration activities to the Chad Basin.

“Our renewed drilling campaign has a higher geological chance of making commercial discoveries of hydrocarbons as we are equipped with state-of-the-art integrated geophysical datasets.

“Therefore, this is an event that will reinforce the Government’s commitment to exploration in the Nation’s Frontier Basins, primarily aimed at increasing the Nation’s hydrocarbon reserves.” NNPCL GMD, Mr Mele Kyari stated.

The wedi-B well which is located at insurgency lavished area of northern Nigeria started its Seismic Acquisition programme decades ago as way back in 1995, but  experienced halt in 2014 owing to escalation of terrorists activities in the region.

Still on information available in course of the seismic acquisition programme, 33,000 km of 2D Seismic data were acquired, processed and interpreted while three prospective sub-basins (Gubio, Maiduguri & Baga/Lake Area) have been identified.The acquired data also showed that two wells (Wadi-1 & Kinasar-1) recorded presence of noncommercial gas.

Going further, before the suspension of the seismic acquisition programme in 2014, about 1,962.20 km2 3D Seismic data was acquired, processed and interpreted in 2008 – 2018

The current oil and gas exploration uptick in the northern region of the country Nigeria is not connected to the fact that the present head of state is from the region but is perceived to be coming from the need to balance the economic source of the oil dependent country whose oil and gas income is solely coming from the south.  .  

Kolmani Integrated Development Project (KIPRO)

In November 2022, the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the Kolmani Integrated Development Project (KIPRO) situated in the boundary of Bauchi and Gombe states.

The KIPRO is an oil prospecting licence (OPL) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field site in the Gongola Basin of the Upper Benue Trough.

The first phase of the project is expected to entail an in-situ oil refinery with a capacity of up to 120, 000 barrels per day, a gas processing plant of up to 500 million standard cubic feet per day, a power plant of up to 300MW capacity, and a fertiliser plant of 2,500 tons per day.

 “This is indeed significant considering that efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the Niger Delta Basin were attempted for many years without the desired outcomes,” Buhari said.

“However, the successful discovery of the Kolmani oil and gas field by NNPC and her partners has finally broken the jinx by confirmation of a huge commercial deposit of hydrocarbons in Kolmani River Field.”

Ebenyi-A exploration well oil well in Nasarawa

On March 23 2023, the outgoing Nigeria government of President Mohammadu Buhari flagged off the spud-in of the Ebenyi-A exploration well located in Obi local government area, Nasarawa state. The drilling of the well consolidated the significant milestone in the exploration of crude oil and gas in the nation’s frontier basin.

“This is consistent with the commercial discovery of commercial hydrocarbons in the Kolmani area of Upper Benue Trough. I am pleased to note that activities are currently ongoing to develop the Kolmani petroleum discoveries in commercial production to add to the nation’s considerable hydrocarbon assets, to enhance overall energy security for our country,” President Buhari said.

Also speaking at the event, Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPCL, said the re-mobilization of a drilling rig to the Chad Basin since 1995 has ushered in new horizon to era of crude oil exploration in the region.

“We stopped drilling here in 1995 because the successes were weak because our findings were not commercial and we understood very clearly that we need to understand the basin very well. We need to have a different approach to exploration activities in this basin,” he said. 

“That is why NNPC and our partner, the ministry of petroleum resources and the current NMDPRA, decided to embark on a massive evaluation of all the frontier basins in the country. And of course, our findings have been useful.

“Our understanding of the rift system in Nigeria enables us to have successful outcome in the Kolmani area. It also enabled us to mobilise to Nasarawa state; a drilling activity and an engagement is ongoing.

“It also helped us to understand the geological setting of the Chad Basin which is why we are back here.

“Now we are much more confident, we believe that this campaign will be successful and that this campaign will take us to the ultimate objective which is to increase the reserves of our country and also create opportunities around us. We believe that the time for oil and gas to vanish is still far away.”

 “And this can’t happen unless we have access to the resources and we are able to convert them into value and of course a new approach to doing this as quickly as is practical which is to do what we are doing in the Kolmani area,” the NNPC boss said.