One Billion Barrels Kolmani Field Drilling Excites Oil Industry Stakeholders

Experts describe oil discovery as spread of national wealth to north PENGASSAN expresses satisfaction with FG, NNPC's war against oil theft Nigerian leaders still fixated on natural resources, says Moghalu

The commencement of oil drilling campaign in the north following the presidential flag off of the Kolmani Field Integrated Development Project straddling Bauchi and Gombe States has continued to generate excitements and positive comments from stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Some of the industry experts, who shared their views with THISDAY, said the successful discovery of oil in the northeast and the swift move by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and its partners to develop the asset up to production would lead to the spread of the national wealth and economic development to the northern part of the country.

This was just as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has given a thumbs up to the federal government, the NNPC and other stakeholders for the efforts taken so far to end the oil theft and vandalism menace in the industry.

The industry experts, who spoke to THISDAY in separate phone chats, included the immediatepast Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria and marginal field operator, Mr. Bank Anthony Okoroafor; Chief Executive Officer, NCGAP Limited, Mr. Tajudeen Adigun; and the Lagos Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, which is made up of the six Southwest states and Kwara State, Mr.

Eyam Abeng.

The Kolmani River Field, located in-between Bauchi and Gombe States in the Upper Benue trough, has been estimated to hold about one billion barrels crude oil reserve and 500 billion cubic feet of gas deposit.

Also, the Kolmani Integrated Development Project, which has reportedly attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of about $3 billion already, houses a 120,000-barrels per day refinery, a 500-million standard cubic feet per day gas processing plant, a 300-megawatt capacity power plant, and a fertiliser plant of 2,500 tons per day.

NNPC is developing the field in partnership with the Northern Nigeria Development Company Limited (NNDC), a company owned by the 19 northern states, and the asset operator, Sterling Global, a Nigerian affiliate of the Indian Sandesara Group.

Speaking to THISDAY, Okoroafor, who is the Chief Executive Officer of CB Geophysical Solutions Limited, an oil service firm, described the commencement of the drilling campaign at the Kolmani Field as a good move.

He added that the development of any of the frontier basins was a positive action for Nigeria's oil and gas reserves' enhancement as well as the economic growth of country.

"It's a good move. I think we still need to go ahead and explore the entire frontier basins. We need to ring-fence their budgets to explore them and to develop them. This will assist in getting our reserves to the acceptable levels, and we have to do this quickly as long as fossil fuel is still relevant.

"So, it's a good progress, forget what anybody says. It's going to create employment, it's going to create revenue for goverment, new infrastructure will spring up in that area. So it is positive," he said.

He noted that since the past decades when investors like the international oil companies (IOCs) were not willing to invest and explore at the frontier areas, the federal government through the NNPC had been the one exploring and footing the bill.

He said those efforts have now resulted in the volume of oil and gas discovered, with the country now, "moving to the development phase, which is positive and I give kudos to the tireless efforts of everybody who has worked very hard to actualise this."

Okoroafor also commended the strategic development plan, which provided for co-locating a refinery, gas processing plant and other facilities at the field to address the challenge of evacuation and getting greater value from the resources.

According to him, "The key thing is this, if you do not put a power plant or a refinery there, how are you going to evacuate the crude you produce? So this is an integrated development. It has taken care of evacuation which is refining it. If we refine it, we can provide petrol and diesel to the entire north and then that will lessen the pressure on the entire south.

“So it's a win-win for everybody. People should look at it from the positive side. I see it as a win-win and I hope every other person will look at it that way."

He, however, made a case for Nigerian indigenous oil service firms to be given maximum consideration for service contracts in the field development project, expressing reservations on the possibility of local firms being given opportunity to participate, with Sterling Global being the operator of the asset.

"If you look at what they reported, it looks like Sterling Global is going to run it and we just hope all the services will be given to local players. That's just our prayer because you know how Sterling Global works. So we just hope all the services will be given to local players,"

For Adigun, the eventual discovery of oil in the north and the move to develop the oil field up to production, "means that the effort to spread the wealth in Nigeria is becoming realistic."

He, however, pointed out that the wealth would only make meaning in the life of the people if lessons could be learnt from what happened in the Niger Delta by ensuring the utilisation of the resources for the benefit of the people.

According to him, "that (the oil resources) should be enough to spread the wealth, for governance to improve people's welfare and living condition. So that is one thing I think that can happen."

Adigun observed that the successful discovery of oil in the north by the NNPC after the IOCs had tried and failed was a vindication that technology is now improving lives and making people to live a more certain life.

"Now there is more certainty. You can now go in and say, what 2D and 3D did last time that we were not sure, the new technology has shown that we can be sure that there is oil there and no more guesses. So this is kudos to the technology-driven society, which means that we can now be more than our nature unlike before," he explained.

Also, PENGASSAN has given a thumbs up to the federal government, the NNPC and other stakeholders for efforts taken so far to end the oil theft and vandalism menace in the nation's oil and gas industry.

The Lagos Zonal chairman of PENGASSAN, Eyam Abeng, said the group was highly satisfied with the response of the government, the NNPC and other industry stakeholders with the results seen so far in the fight against oil theft and vandalism.

Abeng said at the height of the alarming oil losses due to the massive theft and resultant shutdown of operations by oil companies, PENGASSAN activated its advocacy tool and drew stakeholders' interest to the menace confronting the industry.