President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday supervise the first oil drill in oil fields located in Bauchi and Gombe States.
The ground-breaking ceremony of the Kolmani Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field site will be the first oil drilling in Northern Nigeria.
Oil was discovered in commercial volume in the region about two years ago.
While Nigeria is already exploring crude oil in southern Niger Delta, this exploration up north will be the first ever, after an attempt in the Borno region was halted by insecurity.
NNPC Limited, NNPCL, since 2016, launched a search for oil in some Northern states which led to the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Niger States.
According to officials of NNPCL, the oil field in Bauchi and Gombe axis will developed by Sterling Global Oil, New Nigeria Development Commission (NNDC) and NNPCL.
“The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, 22nd November and will be attended by Mr. President himself together with most of his cabinet members including the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.”
With the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2022, funding for frontier exploration has risen to 30 per cent, which means the reformer NNPCL would have more fund to develop oil fields in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) estimate crude oil reserve to be at 37 billion barrels.
The Kolmani fields holds over a billion crude oil reserve, which could significantly raise Nigeria’s oil reserve that has not grown in 10 years.
The oil discovery in the north is coming at a time when crude oil production in the south has dropped to about 1.2 million barrels per day mainly due to oil theft and vandalism.
Oil production in the north could be a backup to shore up revenue for Nigeria as it witnesses huge budget deficit so far, experts say.