President Muhammadu Buhari has again directed the Nigerian oil company to prospect for oil in the country’s north where many have argued for years that Boko Haram has been fighting for the control of oil and not for the formation of a caliphate as Abubakar Shekau has repeatedly claimed in video and audio messages.
With oil in neighbouring Chad, many have argued that there was certainly oil in northern Nigeria, especially the northeast and northern Nigerian states were reported to have hired a British firm to prospect for it, although many have countered that it was a pipe dream.
Local newspaper, The Punch, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation received an express order from President Muhammadu Buhari to explore for oil in the North, “for the second time in three weeks”. President Buhari is from Katsina state in northern Nigeria.
The newspaper said the President directed the national oil firm to commence exploration activities in the Benue Trough, a major geological formation underlying a large part of Nigeria, extending about 1,000km North-East from the Bight of Benin to Lake Chad.
punchng.com quoted the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, as disclosing the President’s directive when he received a delegation from the Benue State Government at the corporation’s headquarters in Abuja.
The President had, about three weeks ago, directed the corporation to speed up its prospect for oil in the region, specifically in the Chad Basin and Kolmani River, following the reported discovery of hydrocarbons by Shell in the area.
“The 19 northern state governors are also fired up about the prospect of oil production in their domain as they have hired a British firm through the Northern Nigeria Development Company, which they jointly own, to carry out the exploration activities,” The Punch said, adding that energy analysts and several socio-cultural and other interest groups on Tuesday expressed divergent views on the pressure by the President on the NNPC as regards oil exploration in the North.
It quoted the NNPC GMD, as saying in a statement on Tuesday that the new directive was in line with the current efforts to guarantee energy security of the country.
“Very close home, we have exploration activities on the Frontier Basin, that is in the Chad; and there are some areas close to the Kolmani River where Shell has made indicative discovery of hydrocarbons and Mr. President has directed me to go into that area to further explore the magnitude and prospects of those finds.
“We are taking steps to get into those regions. We will reinvigorate the frontier exploration and see how they collaborate with the Northern Nigeria Development Company that is holding Block 809 where some of the finds have been found. We will also do the same at the Department of Petroleum Resources for the other blocks that have not been assigned, and work towards proving the prospects of that region.”