Deborah Ajakaiye Quotes

The NNPC had done an integrated study of the Chad Basin with 10 international companies, during which 23 oil wells were drilled and areas with oil and gas potential were determined.

a comprehensive and simultaneous survey acquisition of gravity for electro-magnetic study of the basins for 2D seismic and 3D seismic in the areas found to be very prolific.

All these are part of the work being done for frontier exploration in the country, while explaining that for now, government is saddled with all the responsibility of doing the surveys to prove the prospectivity of the basins, as the International Oil Companies, IOCs will only come in thereafter.

Now we don’t have enough data to attract investors, but after the studies companies can now begin to explore for oil based on the findings.

Every country has strategic policy regarding its natural resources in order to preserve them. So we can’t rule out the possibility that we might have strategic reserve areas and the Department of Petroleum resources, DPR, will demarcate the areas.

Previous works in the Anambra basin had yielded little results, as of the eight wells drilled in the region, seven of them had gas with only found with oil, “so more work is needed to be done in this area to quantify the studies… in Bida, Sokoto and Benue basins, we have not drilled any wells.

The IOCs operating in the country has cooperated with government with regard to the geological surveys by supplying data where demanded. “Now we don’t have enough data to attract investors, but after the studies companies can now begin to explore for oil based on the findings.

The Chinese have found 500 million barrels reserves in Chad itself and a pipeline is being laid to Segigi Field, where a refinery is being built, which is going to serve the whole of Chad. Also, another 500 million barrels were found in the Tannit in Niger, and we have similar soil structure and similar basin, which makes sense to intensify surveys in our own Chad Basin.

With regard to the concentration of survey in the Chad Basin, I explained that this is because a lot of finds have been made in other neighbouring countries along the rift zone.

The Basin (Chad) lies along the West and Central African Rift System. All the basins along the rift zone like Doba, Salamar, Bongo and the Chad Tannit in Niger, there have been a lot of finds and oil exploration.