The group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has stated that the Corporation will fast-track its hydrocarbon exploration efforts within the Chad Basin and Kolmani River in the northern part of the country.
He made this known when the governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar visited him in Abuja, yesterday. He said President Muhammadu Buhari, had directed that the oil exploration process in the region be sped up and the corporation’s Frontier Exploration Services had been retooled to commence in collaboration with the Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC), which is already prospecting for oil within the basin.
Baru revealed that the president had asked the corporation to explore the magnitude and prospects of the reported indicative discovery of hydrocarbons by Royal Dutch Oil Company and Shell in the Chad Basin and Kolmani River and also explained that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had been intimated on the need to assign blocks in the basin for prospective investors to take up.