TheCable

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) says it is taking coordinated steps for more frontier exploration across the north.

The company said this in a document, seen by TheCable, on the frontier exploration services activities of NNPC from 2020 to 2022.

According to the document, some prospective states where oil is expected to be discovered include Niger, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Gombe states.

Beyond the north, the Anambra basin was listed as another area where the NNPC is striving to find more oil.

Prospecting is the first stage in discovering oil and gas field, under which seismic surveys are carried out.

Here are highlights of exploration activities by Nigeria’s oil company in two years.

NNPC SEISMIC DATA ACQUISITION 

The NNPC document showed that 2D seismic acquisition has been completed at the 700 line kilometre (LKM) in Sokoto basin, where crop compensation payment has been completed.

According to NNPC, post-acquisition has reached 70 percent on the 600 LKM in Bida basin, while acquisition activities have been suspended on the southern Chad basin, due to undisclosed circumstances.

To ensure the continuation of activities on the southern Chad basin, it said security clearance was received from the defence headquarters on November 7, 2022.

NNPC said it also requested for a waiver from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for environmental impact assessment (EIA) to commence operations in the aforementioned basin.

Meanwhile, for the oil prospecting licence (OPL) 813A 3D in southern Chad basin, post-acquisition was at 65 percent completion.

In Nasarawa state, the NNPC document revealed that the 86km2 Keana west 3D seismic data was fully acquired but post-acquisition activities was yet to commence.

The NNPC said it is prospecting for oil in phase 13 in Wadi, Yobe state, where a 168km2 likely area is being appraised.

In Adamawa, it noted that it is on phase 14 of Kinasar prospect, spanning 170km2 as well as phase 15 of Ziye prospect, spanning 172km2 all in the Borno basin, adding that both prospects have been completely assessed for security risk.

In addition, it said while the contract agreements for phases 13 and 14 have been executed, that of phase 15 is yet to be executed.

OIL DRILLING  FEATS

Highlighting the progress made in the drilling of prospective well sites, the national oil firm said it has reached the drilling stage for six sites in the frontier basins.

According to the document, the company drilled Kolmani River 3, which it started in April 2020 and completed in November 2020 — drilling 13,000 feet.

NNPC also drilled Kolmani River 4 well from July 2021 to September 2021, noting that drilling at the Chad Basin and three other sites, will begin soon.

According to the report, the firm also applied for permits from the regulatory agency to complete the drilling of phase 8 – X3 well in Chad Basin.

The NNPC report further explained that a “petroleum play fairway analysis”, basin modelling activities, and seismic interpretation were ongoing at the Anambra basin and had reached 65 percent completion.

Section 9 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) established the frontier exploration fund (FEF) with the allocation of 30 percent profit from NNPC’s upstream oil and gas contracts (production sharing, profit sharing and risk sharing contract) for the purpose.

FIRST CRUDE OIL DRILLING PROJECT IN NORTH

On November 22, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the Kolmani Integrated Development Project (KIPRO) situated in the boundary of Bauchi and Gombe states.

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 comprise 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.