Exploration for oil in Bauchi/Gombe to begin soon – Official
Exploration for hydrocarbons in Bauchi and Gombe states which together form the Gongola Basin or the northern part of the Benue Trough will soon commence, the head of the exploration services has said.
Group General Manager, Frontier Exploration Services (FES) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Mazadu D. Bako, told Daily Trust in an interview that the corporation is optimistic of striking either crude oil or gas, following the identification of some prospects at the Gongola Basin after series of seismic data acquisition activities ongoing since 2016.
NNPC had in 2016 commenced exploration activities in the Gongola Basin by awarding contract for the 3D seismic data acquisition to Integrated Data Service Limited (IDSL), a subsidiary of the NNPC and a Chinese subsidiary firm.
“We did some acquisition last year and we have been able to process the data, interpret and then also identify some prospective areas for drilling,” Bako said.
He said the exploration activities at the Chad Basin remained suspended until the corporation gets fresh security clearance to re-enter the area.
“Because of the security challenges you cannot tell anybody to go there; nobody is even willing to go. That is where we are now. So, operations in the Chad Basin are suspended.”
He said NNPC has in the meantime started some preliminary work at the Bida and Sokoto basins and should be through with the field geological work later this month.
“The second phase which is surface geochemistry, ground gravity and magnetics data gathering will commence in Bida and Sokoto. The essence of this is that we are trying to zero in on the prospective areas and see if they have the source rock where the hydrocarbon is generated.”