Africa’s largest national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has been on the news in the last couple of days for the right reasons.
The company has sustained its aggressive search for oil to boost the nation’s oil reserve with the drilling in the northeast and other basins going on unabated.
Presidential Backing for Sustained Oil Search
President Muhammadu Buhari has remained supportive of the national oil company in its quest to deliver on its mandate of growing the nation’s oil reserve through aggressive exploration activities across the basins of the country.
THISDAY reported that the president was expected to officially kick off the drilling of crude oil in the northeast on Tuesday (tomorrow) where he would conduct the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kolmani Oil Prospecting Lease (OPLs) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field site located in Bauchi and Gombe States.
Buhari had conducted his first supervision of the drilling exercise in October 2019 during which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), then a corporation, announced the encountering of oil in “commercial quantities at the Kolmani River Well II.
This time, he is expected to carry out the drilling supervision with the support of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva and the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, among other government and NNPC officials.
However, the oilfields in Bauchi and Gombe States will be developed by Sterling Global Oil, New Nigeria Development Commission (NNDC) and the NNPC Limited, an official of NNPC had told THISDAY anonymously.
“The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, November 22, and will be attended by Mr. President himself together with most of his cabinet members including the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva,” the NNPC official had said.
Move Excites Industry Players, Analysts
Excited by the scheduled supervision of the oil drilling exercise by the president, some players in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and policy analysts have lauded the president, saying that would have positive impact on the current search for more oil deposits by the NNPC.
Commenting on the development, some of the analysts and industry players, who spoke to THISDAY, yesterday, on condition of anonymity, said the move by the president would signal to both local and international investors that Nigeria means business in its efforts to get value from its God-given resources.
They said the president’s billed supervision of the drilling campaign tomorrow as he did in 2019, was indicative of his walking the talk having signed the landmark Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) into law in 2021, which provided for the Frontier Exploration Fund to enable NNPC aggressively go in search of more oil to boost the nation’s oil and gas reserves.
One of the analysts, whose company consults for national and international oil companies said as long as the supervision would lead to real oil discoveries and not political discoveries, and subsequent growth of reserves and production, it would usher in bright prospects for the industry and the nation.
He said, “I read it in the paper like other people that the president will be supervising the drilling. You know it’s not the first time he has done that. He did it in 2019. So, it’s a welcome development. At least, it’s a sign that Buhari is serious about growing our reserves.
“That move is indicative that he is actually walking the talk. Remember he has signed the PIA, which captured the Frontier Exploration Fund, that has empowered NNPC to go all out in search of more oil and gas to grow our reserves.
“So, with this move by the president, investors in Nigeria and abroad will now know that we are serious about adding value to what we have. But I hope the discoveries will be real and not political because that has been one of the issues around that oil exploration in the north.”
Another source told THISDAY that Buhari’s supervision of the drilling would motivate NNPC and its partners to be more serious in the search for oil in the region, saying, “they know that the president is actively watching what they are doing and wants to see results”.
However, the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) had in 2020 commended the NNPC and Kyari for executing oil exploration in the Benue Trough and Chad Basin despite the Coronavirus pandemic.
The then President of NAPE, Mr. Alex Tarka, who relayed the association’s view in his remark during a virtual workshop for oil and gas journalists at the time, had said the exploration being carried out by the NNPC was attracting the attention of the International Oil Companies (IOCs), who the corporation was considering partnership with.
He had specifically noted that the NNPC was pressing ahead with the oil drilling in the Benue Trough in order to add more to the lives of Nigerians, stressing that the government needed not to wait for investors before embarking on oil exploration in the land.
He had added that the government’s doggedness and the enabling environment would cause the IOCs to join in the search for oil.
Tarka commended Kyari, for leading the corporation on more oil search despite the challenges in the global oil environment, adding that the gesture showed that the current NNPC was desirous of matching the nation along its 40 billion barrels crude oil reserves target.
One Billion Barrels Already Discovered
