NNPC Awaits Security Clearance to Resume Oil Exploration in Chad Basin

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has restated its commitment to resume oil search in the Chad Basin as soon as it received security clearance.
Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja when the Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed, paid him a visit.

Baru, in a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said: “We will go back there as soon as we receive security clearance.
“There seems to be some prospects there because Niger Republic drilled over 600 wells and now they are producing while we have only drilled 23.”

Oil search in the Chad Basin was suspended after a team of NNPC Frontier Exploration Services and their consultants from the University of Maiduguri were attacked and some of them abducted on July 25, 2017.

Baru commended the people of Bauchi and Gombe States, especially communities in the exploration area for their support and hospitality, assuring them of NNPC’s support in the provision of infrastructure and amenities.

On the proposed Institute of Petroleum Studies to be established in Bauchi State University, Dr. Baru pledged the support of NNPC and assured the governor of synergy between the institution and the Petroleum Training Institute, Warri, for exchange programs and manpower development.

Speaking earlier, Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed said his visit was to seek collaboration with the corporation on how to move the state forward.

“We are happy that we have some hydrocarbon not only in Bauchi but also in Gombe both in the Gongola Basin and we are totally committed to the exploration activities of the NNPC in the area”, the governor said.