Prospects of hydrocarbons in Enugu as FG, Caritas discuss environmental concerns
FEW weeks after gas deposits sparked fire at the Caritas University in Enugu, the Federal Government and stakeholders, yesterday, met seeking leeway to environmental issues and possibilities of hydrocarbons in the state.
In an attempt to drill for water, contractors at the university had encountered gas deposits leading to a fire outbreak that lasted for days.
While the university, the state government, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission ( NUPRC) and other stakeholders battled to halt the fire and close the well, the stakeholders said yesterday that a series of investigations, including activities that might result in hydrocarbon prospectivity might commence in the area.
Enugu State has been seeking to be recognised as an oil producing state. While Kogi State, which bordered the Coal City state was recently named an oil producing state, Representative of Enugu North Senatorial District, Chukwuma Utazi, raised the over the exclusion of his state from the oil- producing states.
He was reacting to the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission’s ( RMAFC) recent declaration of Kogi and Anambra states as oilproducing states, insisting that OPL 915 and 916 in the Anambra Basin belonged to Enugu State.
Coming at a time when the Federal Government already reserved 30 per cent of the oil profit that comes from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPC) production sharing contracts, risk and service contracts and the likes to explore oil, NUPRC said in Enugu yesterday that the Federal Government was already collecting necessary data at the site.
NUPRC Chief Executive noted that although there are possibilities that the gas deposit is only on surface level because the fire at the university had gone off by itself, investigation and data collection is being expedited to enable the commission to reach a meaningful conclusion.
Represented by Owerri acquire further seismic data Zonal Coordinator of that will further enable us to NUPRC, Enorense Amadasu, know exactly what kind of he said a series of data collechydrocarbon deposit is in tion, analysis and producthis aspect of the country. tion processes would be “There is a school of required, making it impossithought, which says that ble for the commission to what happened here is shadreach a quick conclusion at ow gas, which evolves across the site. the Enugu region.
He disclosed that the inciDepending on the volume of dent at the site did not occur that, if that postulation is as a result of gas pipeline correct, after a time the volleak, adding that no pipeline ume will go off, which is passes through the area. what happened here.
He said while the Niger However, like I said before, Delta region had been cov - we still need to add some ered by surveys as well as more survey data and do the some part of the Northern region, Komolafe said the survey was still going on.
“The commission is putting a mechanism in place to work with other stakehold
ers to see how they can interpretation to be able to determine the exact position of hydrocarbon accumulation in the role of this region, he added.
The governor of the State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, noted necessary steps hadbeen taken to ensure that the environment where the gas fire erupted was safe.
Represented by the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Greg Nnaji, the governor said the roles played by the stakeholders, especially the school and the NUPRC, must be commended.