The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday revealed that crude oil has been discovered in the Benue Trough in commercial quantity.
The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria oil giant, Malam Mele Kyari who made the disclosure while delivering a goodwill message at the opening ceremony of the 38th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) where he was a Special Guest, said geologists spearheading the efforts confirmed the development.
He reiterated NNPC’s resolve to grow the nation’s hydrocarbon reserves to 40billion barrels through reinvigorated exploratory activities in the inland frontier basins across the country.
In a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Dr. Kennie Obateru, Kyari was quoted to have said that the strategy is to aggressively explore for more oil in the frontier basins in order to grow the nation’s reserve base, in line with the Federal Government’s aspiration to hit the 40billion barrels reserve target.
According to him, the theme of the conference, “Accelerating Growth in Nigeria’s Hydrocarbon Reserves: Emerging Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities” fits squarely into NNPC’s key aspiration, which is to grow the nation’s hydrocarbon reserves, reduce unit operating cost of crude oil production to $10 per barrel and improve efficiency across its businesses.
“It is my pleasure to appreciate the good work and resilience of our in-house professionals in the ongoing inland basins exploration activities that culminated in the recent discovery of hydrocarbons in Benue Trough. NNPC is indeed proud that it is NAPE members that are spearheading this effort,” Mallam Kyari stated.
Kyari further stated that the NNPC has made significant progress in improving operational efficiency through the adoption of technology and deliberate effort to curtail soaring cost of operations across strategic assets.
“It is instructive to understand that the current market reality cannot support inefficiency and escalated costs of operations. The era of $30/bbl oil no longer exists.
“In today’s Covid-19 defined market, sustaining operations and making progress means that all stakeholders must recognize the need to improve efficiency, reduce costs, eliminate wastages, entrench accountability, act with transparency and embrace technology and innovation to drive performance and value realization across strategic investment portfolios,” he posited.
The NNPC helmsman added that in the face of the energy transition, the Corporation is focused on developing gas infrastructure and deepening domestic gas utilization, stressing that gas is the energy of the future.
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