Nigeria on Tuesday began drilling for oil and gas in the country’s northeast, a first for the African oil giant, which has operated large fields in the Niger Delta for decades but whose output continues to decline. Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has visited the Kolman field, located in Gombe and Bauchi states, with reserves of over one million barrels, to inaugurate the drilling site.
“Efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the Niger Delta basin have been futile for many years (…) But the discovery of the Kolman oil and gas field has broken that curse.”The president said that he was quoting the press release. In addition to drilling, this oil project, which has attracted an investment of 3 billion dollars, aims to open an oil refinery, a gas processing unit, a power plant and a fertilizer plant, according to a press release from the presidency.
The President also called on the National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and partners in charge of the project “to ensure that lessons learned from years of experience as an oil producing country are used to ensure harmonious relations with local communities”.. Oil exploitation in Nigeria began in the 1960s in the Niger Delta region (south-east). Decades of production have enriched important government officials and brought huge profits especially to large foreign companies, but most Nigerians, especially in the oil delta, continue to live in poverty.
Focus on offshore operations
Tens of thousands of people in this region devastated by oil pollution now live off the theft of crude oil by pipelines or at sea, illegal oil refineries that have spread across swampy and forested areas, and the sale of fuel on the black market, causing environmental disasters. This insecurity has also dramatically increased the cost of Nigerian oil production, and major foreign oil companies are now divesting their stakes in onshore oilfields to focus on offshore development.
In September, Nigeria lost its place as the African continent’s top oil producer to Angola, its oil output continuing to decline despite rising prices linked to the Russian offensive in Ukraine. In addition to a severe economic crisis, Africa’s most populous country is also facing near-universal insecurity between gang attacks and a jihadist insurgency in the north and separatist unrest in the southeast. It is in this extremely tense atmosphere that Nigerian voters are being invited to the polls on February 25 to elect a successor to President Buhari, who is stepping down after two terms in office as stipulated by the constitution.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.