Secrecy, doubts trail one billion barrels oil discovery in North

One year after the discovery of over one billion barrels of crude oil in the North, the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited are yet to come clean on the true state of activities in the nation’s inland basins.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, last year said about one billion barrels of crude oil have been discovered in the North East, adding that there was the need for more exploration to be undertaken.

Seen by many as President Muhammadu Buhari’s pet project, which he started over 40 years ago, Sylva’s announcement followed an earlier statement by the NNPC in the third quarter of 2019, which stated that crude oil, gas and condensates were discovered in the Kolmani River region at a border community between Bauchi and Gombe states.

That announcement was made eight months after Buhari flagged off exploration activities at the Kolmani River II Well, on the Upper Benue Trough, Gongola Basin, in the North East.

But stakeholders who spoke with correspondents, yesterday, expressed concerns over the secrecy surrounding the exploration in the North as the NNPC, which had pledged to be transparent and accountable, and currently partnering the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is yet to publish its spending on the activities.