Buhari Flags Off First Oil Exploration in North-East

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday flagged off the Kolmani Integrated Development Project in the North-East, the first of its kind in the zone.

Buhari said the oil exploration at the Kolmani River, located between Gombe and Bauchi states, has already attracted over $3 million in foreign direct investment and will boost Nigeria’s fortunes and earnings.

The project is expected to start with a daily production of about 50,000 barrels of crude oil.

The event was attended by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Slyva; and the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari;

Other governors include Simon Lalong (Plateau), Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi). The Group Managing Director of the New Nigeria Development Company, Shehu Mai-Borno, was also in attendance.

The NNPC had announced in 2019 the discovery of crude oil in the Kolmani River region, at the border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.

Subsequently, Section 9 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), signed by the President, established the Frontier Exploration Fund (FEF) with the allocation of 30 percent of the profit from NNPC’s upstream oil and gas contracts for the purpose of oil exploration in Kolmani as well as in Anambra, Dahomey, Bida, Chad, and the Benue Trough.

GOGAN TV