Leadership (Abuja)
Ayodele Samuel
18 November 2008
Government has urged stakeholders in the nation's oil and gas industry not to allow uncertainties in the global market dissuade them for exploring more oil reserves, and asked them to continue to replenish the nation's hidden seven oil basins, so that the nation can meet its aspiration of 40 billion barrel reserve by 2010.
The Minister of State for Energy (Petroleum), Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, at the 26th Annual International Conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), said that oil firms have not made significant efforts to grow the oil and gas reserves, which, if not properly addressed, would distort the country's decision to explore for more oil production.
Ajumogobia, therefore, charged oil firms to replenish and grow the country's reserve base through exploration of all the nation's seven basins, urging the companies to employ all available geo-technologies to de-risk the prospectivity and step up exploration activities in the inland basins.
The other basins, apart from the Niger Delta, according to the minister, include Anambra, Benue, Bida, Chad, Dahomey and Sokoto basins, pointing out that the exploration of these basins would help the country to meet its target of 40 billion barrels reserves by 2010.
Ajumogobia said: "I must remark that there has been no appreciable growth in Nigeria's oil and gas reserves in the last five years, despite the known potentials both onshore and in the deep offshore.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
