Nigeria: Chad Basin Oil Exploration - Way Forward

16 September 2016
opinion

The renewed effort for search of oil in the Chad Basin by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has generated excitement of the populace as this is viewed as final attempt to find oil in this region. The earlier exploration campaigns of the then Direct Exploratory Services (DES), later renamed Frontier Exploratory Services (FES) of the NNPC - an in-house outfit of the corporation - lasted some 14 years spanning from 1986 and ending around 2000. During the period some 23 exploratory wells were drilled within Borno State - largely in the Chad Basin Sedimentary Rocks.

The speed of performance of FES was generally assessed to be sluggish compared to, say, neighboring Chad Republic which drilled some 43 exploratory wells before oil was found within about the same time scale. Performance efficiency of the then management of the FES was accordingly seen to be slow and now the expected new management of the body must deploy better skills and indeed approach for speedy realization of the government objective of finding oil. This is vital since drilling rig may have to be hired similar to the previous efforts. Drilling costs is high and with limited national resources, efficiency becomes vital in all respects. The high level cooperation now existing between Nigeria and Chad Republic can be exploited to support the exploratory exercise. Chad Republic must have huge data on exploration within the basin that should minimize risk of dry wells. This, in addition to the seismic data to be acquired directly by NNPC will lead to successful discovery of the much sought oil in this region. This approach will significantly reduce exploratory costs since cost savings is cardinal concern of the government.

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