Buhari kicks off oil drilling in Chad Basin

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday, flagged off the oil drilling campaign in Wadi-B prospect, Chad Basin, Tuba Community, Jere Local Government Area, Borno State.

He said the flag-off had signaled the formal resumption of physical activities for the exploration of crude oil and gas in the Chad Basin area.

Buhari, who flagged off the drilling campaign virtually,said he was aware that crude oil and gas exploration activities had been ongoing in the Chad Basin since 1976, as well as the discovery of some commercial gas at Wadi-1 well in 1985.

“I am also aware that active drilling activities were suspended in 1995 to enable re-evaluation of exploration activities in the entire frontier basins.

“I am happy that the NNPC has since then conducted extensive analysis and the evaluation of all frontier basins leading to the successful drilling and discovery of crude oil and gas in commercial quantities in Kolmani River-2.

“It has also provided insight into the ongoing crude oil and gas drilling campaign in Nasarawa State, as well as the current re-entry activities into the Chad Basin,” Buhari stated.

The President noted that the consequential effect of the likely positive outcome of the Chad Basin exploration campaign was in increasing the national crude oil and gas reserves and production, enhancing national energy security and ensuring greater prosperity for Nigerians.

Buhari said he was looking forward to a successful drilling campaign in the Chad Basin through the collaborative efforts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, host communities, state and other partners.

On his part, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, said the flag-off campaign entailed the re-mobilisation of a drilling rig to the Chad Basin for the first time since the 1980s efforts underscored

“Wadi-B well is considered an appraisal/exploration well as it has been designed to appraise seven hydrocarbon reservoir depth levels encountered by the Wadi-1 well that was drilled in 1985, and to explore deeper hydrocarbon reservoir targets up to a total depth of 4km.

“NNPC Limited is committed to carrying out detailed exploration of the frontier sedimentary basins using the best industry standards and technologies, with the aim of attaining commercial discoveries of crude oil and gas.

“As a commercial enterprise, NNPC sees this project as an opportunity to monetise our abundant hydrocarbon resources, by expanding access to energy to support economic growth, industrialisation, and job creation across the country,” he stated.

Kyari said the renewed drilling campaign had a higher geological chance of making commercial discoveries of hydrocarbons, adding that the oil company was equipped with state of the art integrated geophysical datasets.

“Therefore, this is a spud-in event that will reinforce the government’s commitment for exploration in the nation’s frontier basins, primarily aimed at increasing the nation’s hydrocarbon reserves,” the oil firm’s helmsman stated.

Data from the company stated that crude oil exploration at the basin commenced in 1976 and continued until 1996, as 33,000km of 2D Seismic data were acquired, processed and interpreted.

It said three prospective sub-basins including Gubio, Maiduguri and Baga/Lake Area were identified, while two wells, Wadi-1 and Kinasar-1, recorded presence of noncommercial gas between 2008 – 2018.

It further stated that a 1,962.20 km2 3D Seismic data was acquired, processed and interpreted, adding that the 2014 seismic acquisition operations were suspended due to insurgency.

The oil firm stated that prospect/leads were identified from interpreted seismic data and nonseismic and that the de-risking of identified leads/prospects were done via surface geochemistry.

It carried out a petroleum system re-evaluation, aimed at de-risking source and maturity, stressing that security risk evaluation was done to recommend the best way of re-entry between 2019 – 2022.

The NNPCL stated that it completed the security risk assessment for Chad Basin re-entry, and carried out a security awareness workshop for the re-entry.

“Wadi-B firmed up to appraise/explore the identified prospect,” the oil company stated.