For the second time in three weeks, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has received an express order
from President Muhammadu Buhari to explore for oil in the North.
This time, the President directed the
national oil firm to commence exploration activities in the Benue
Trough. The Benue Trough is a major geological formation underlying a
large part of Nigeria, extending about 1,000km North-East from the Bight
of Benin to Lake Chad.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr.
Maikanti Baru, disclosed the President’s directive on the oil
expolration in the North while receiving a delegation from the Benue
State Government at the corporation’s headquarters in Abuja.
About three weeks ago, the President had
directed the corporation to speed up its prospect for oil in the
region, specifically in the Chad Basin and Kolmani River, following the
reported discovery of hydrocarbons by Shell in the area.
The 19 northern state governors are also
fired up about the prospect of oil production in their domain as they
have hired a British firm through the Northern Nigeria Development
Company, which they jointly own, to carry out the exploration
activities.
But energy analysts and several
socio-cultural and other interest groups on Tuesday expressed divergent
views on the pressure by the President on the NNPC as regards oil
exploration in the North.
The NNPC GMD, in a statement from the
corporation on Tuesday, said the new directive was in line with the
current efforts to guarantee energy security of the country.
Baru said, “Very close home, we have
exploration activities on the Frontier Basin, that is in the Chad; and
there are some areas close to the Kolmani River where Shell has made
indicative discovery of hydrocarbons and Mr. President has directed me
to go into that area to further explore the magnitude and prospects of
those finds.
“We are taking steps to get into those
regions. We will reinvigorate the frontier exploration and see how they
collaborate with the Northern Nigeria Development Company that is
holding Block 809 where some of the finds have been found. We will also
do the same at the Department of Petroleum Resources for the other
blocks that have not been assigned, and work towards proving the
prospects of that region.”
But the Ijaw Youth Council and Urhobo
Monitoring and Development Group while reacting to the presidential
directive said it was a good initiative but came at a wrong time.
The IYC, an umbrella body for the Ijaw
youths worldwide, said that the timing for the directive was wrong
because of the prevailing situation in the oil industry at the
international market, which made such a venture economically unwise.
A statement signed by the spokesman for
the group, Eric Omare, said one would have expected that President
Buhari-led government should focus on diversifying the nation’s ailing
economy, especially areas where the different regions had comparative
advantage over the other.
“Ordinary, the IYC would be excited by
not just a Presidential directive to explore for oil in any part of the
North but discovery of oil in the North. This is so because we strongly
believe that the struggle of the people of the Niger Delta region for
equitable distribution of oil money would become a reality once oil is
found in the North as well.”
On its part, the National President of
the Urhobo Monitoring and Development Group, Kingsley Oberuruaria,
posited that while the directive was good, it was a self-serving step to
further annihilate the people of the region from benefitting from its
God-given natural resources.
Oberuruaria explained that the desire of
the President was to cut the region out of the country’s scheme of
things once oil production fully came alive in that region while the
Niger Delta, which had been feeding the nation, would forever be
neglected.
The Niger Delta youth leader posited
that such a presidential directive should be put into various ailing
industries in the country such as the Delta Steel Company in Aladja,
Delta State, which he said was capable of employing hundreds of
thousands of unemployed Nigerian youths.
“I’m sure this directive was as a result
of the prevailing crisis in the Niger Delta region. President Buhari
has been looking for ways to cut off the region instead of being
resolute to develop the region which has been neglected by every
successive government,” he said.
But two prominent leaders of the
pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Chief Sehinde
Arogbofa and Yinka Odumakin, differed on the issue.
Arogbofa, who is the Secretary-General
of the association, said it would be part of the way to restructure the
country, which the association had been clamouring for.
He said, “There is nothing wrong if they
find oil in the North. That is why we are calling for restructuring; if
that is his (Buhari) own restructuring agenda, it is okay. We already
have oil in the South and if he orders for prospect of oil in the North,
there is nothing wrong in that .”
But the group’s spokesman, Odumakin,
said it was a wasted effort. He recalled, “Mr. Alan Lennox-Boyde, the
Secretary of State for the Colonies in a memorandum on Nigerian
Constitutional Conference wrote in 1958: The North fears and dislikes
the more educated Southerners and if they were not economically bound to
the federation, they would be glad to be quit of it. What he stated has
not changed much till date and this may explain the desperate search
for oil in the North at a time oil is becoming worthless.”
Also, the President, Campaign for Democracy, Bako Usman, said the President was not getting good advice.
He said, “What is worth doing, they say,
is worth doing well. We as a people need to acknowledge the fact that
this government needs an effective economic direction. For now, most
people around Mr. President on the pay roll of taxpayers money are just
but ill Advisers.
The Pan-northern socio-cultural group,
Arewa Consultative Forum, said it was not aware of the Presidential
pronouncement on oil exploration in the region.
The National Publicity Secretary of the
forum, Muhammad Ibrahim, told one of our correspondents in Kaduna on
Tuesday that he was not aware of Buhari’s order to the NNPC to prospect
for oil in the region.
The Head of Energy Research, Ecobank
Capital, Mr. Dolapo Oni, said the move must have been informed by the
need to reduce the reliance on the Niger Delta and reduce the country’s
vulnerability to attacks in the region.
He said, “But, at a time when we don’t
have enough money to run the economy, even though oil servicing charges
are a lot lesser now due to the drop in oil prices, it is still not the
right time to dedicate a large amount of money to search for oil in the
North.
“Ideally, the idea will be a concession
and allow companies do whatever they need to do. If we want to do 2D and
3D seismic, we can do it, gather that data and allow oil companies to
come and do their own search. But if we are dedicating the NNPC’s scarce
resources to going beyond the 2D and 3D, I think it may not be the best
of time.”
The Project Director, Uquo Gas Field
Development, a joint venture project by Frontier Oil Limited and Seven
Energy, Mr. Abdullahi Bukar, described the renewed efforts towards
exploring for oil in the Benue Trough and Chad Basin as a very good
development.
He said, “I hope that a well-thought-out
policy will be put in place because anything that will increase
Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves is very welcome.”
The Chief Executive Officer, Cowry Asset
Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, said the discovery of oil in
Niger Republic must have been a major boost for Nigeria to continue to
prospect for oil in the Sahel region.
Describing the effort to diversify the
nation’s oil and gas production as a good move, he said, “It depends on
the level of resources being committed to it. I think it is something
the government needs to be very circumspect in committing resources to
it. It is very likely that what would be achieved in the Chad Basin will
be marginal deposits. So, I don’t think the government is going to be
too bullish in terms of the resources it is going to commit to such
effort.”
The Director-General, West African
Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, said,
“There is nothing wrong in getting more oil. But my worry is the
dependence on non-renewable resources without adding value to it.”
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