While the world is planning to move away from crude oil, Nigeria continues its exploration expansion as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) moved oil exploratory activities to the Sokoto Basin and Benue Trough.
The move to Sokoto was brought about by the attack on geologists and other exploration workers in the Chad Basin by Book Haram.
The search for oil and gas in commercial quantity in the inland frontier basins of Northern Nigeria comprising the Nigerian sector of the Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Sokoto Basin, Bida Basin and the Northern Anambra Basin have been intensified under the present administration.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, confirmed the development when Sokoto State Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal visited him on Tuesday in Abuja.
Baru said NNPC had already procured aeromagnetic data on the Sokoto Basin from the Nigerian Geophysical Survey as well as awarded contract for the mapping and procurement of apt samples to further the understanding of the area.
The NNPC GMD also announced that the NNPC has contracted its subsidiary, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), to carry out various geochemistry investigations to boost the gathering and integration of all relevant data ahead of the planned procurement of seismic 2D data position.
Governor Tambuwal in a statement said the state government, in collaboration with the Usman Danfodio University, would organise a national conference on the Sokoto Basin in October, expressing optimism that it add value in the search for hydrocarbon in the Sokoto Basin.
