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NNPCL mum, as Bauchi, Gombe communities cite lack of political will
From Ahmad Muhammad, Bauchi
It was the general election campaign period, but the atmosphere had indicated that something beyond the electioneering was taking place in the border villages of Bauchi and Gombe states.
The rustic communities had roared to life with increased economic activities and the unusual vehicular movements and the strange, overwhelming presence of security personnel with their armoured vehicles dotting the newly constructed narrow roads to a new oil and gas facility in the neighbourhood. The jubilant residents were going to be hosts to some VIPs they may never have seen in all their life times. It was the birth and flag off of oil drilling activities in Kolmani located in Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State by former President Muhammadu Buhari who was leading the then All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu on campaign tours to Gombe State in November of 2022.
But unknown to the villagers, that excitement and the spiraling infectious joy that transcended the entire northern region on the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities which drilling had officially commenced was to last for only a short period of time. Indeed, it evaporated barely one year after the elaborate flag off ceremony.
What is now left visibly in the horizon is gloom and anxiety 20 months after the flag off of the oil drilling and exploration activities in communities around Bauchi and Gombe states. There’s growing concern in both low and high places across the northern geopolitical region over the uncertainty that has characterized the now abandoned multi billion dollars project.
This has ushered in apprehension and widespread rumours among many people in the Northern part of the country as the fate of the exploration and drilling of oil in the region is seemingly hanging in the balance.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari had inaugurated the first drilling of oil in the North discovered in Kolmani River along Bauchi State and Gombe State Border in November, 2022 within the licensed areas, designated as Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 810 and 809.
The inauguration came after the announcement, first in 2019 of the discovery of crude oil, gas and condensate in commercial quantities in the Kolmani area between Bauchi and Gombe states in northeastern Nigeria by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Ltd.
That development brought about widespread excitement across Nigeria of the availability of oil in commercial quantities in the hinterland, which would expectedly bolster the nation’s forex earnings.
Former President Buhari had announced that the NNPC Ltd started drilling for oil and gas at a field in northern Nigeria, Kolmani confirmed to have 1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion cubic feet of gas.
The former president noted that phase one of the Kolmani project in the northeast was planned to have an oil refinery, gas processing unit, 300-megawatt power plant and fertilizer plant producing 2,500 tonnes a day.
He said no oil major was involved in the project being developed by NNPC, a local firm, Sterling Global Oil and New Nigeria Development Company, a conglomerate owned by the 19 northern states.
The Kolmani Integrated Development Project of Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field site, straddles Bauchi and Gombe States and is a novel partnership that will see the trio of Africa Oilfield Movers Ltd consortium, New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) and NNPC E&P Ltd (formerly NPDC) producing and monetizing the field.
In another phase of the project, there was a plan to have a downstream oil terminal/depot for offtake and distribution of the white products coming out of the refinery and further development of the integrated project.
The journey to the epoch-making occasion commenced in the 1990s when Oil Prospecting Licenses (OPLs) 809 and 810 were initially awarded to Shell and Chevron respectively as part of their frontier obligation under the Production Sharing Contractual (PSC) Agreement on Oil Mining Licenses (OMLs) 118 and 132 for consolidated cost recovery.
The companies explored the acreages and drilled a well each in their respective blocks. Kolmani River-1 was drilled on OPL 809 by Shell and Nasara-1 was drilled by Chevron on OPL 810 as part of their minimum work programme obligation.
But both companies reported sub-commercial discovery of hydrocarbon in their blocks.
Beyond the sub-commercial discoveries, the landlocked location of the blocks made it impossible for the export of any oil find, hence the two oil giants were acclaimed to have returned the blocks to the regulators basket.
Our correspondents report that exploration activities have inexplicably declined since the project’s inauguration, causing apprehension and disappointment, particularly given the current oil and gas market realities.
Since after Former President Muhammadu Buhari, then in company of the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu supervised the first oil drilling in the North, the companies that deployed their equipment for oil exploration and drilling machines have evacuated their equipment and left the site without giving any reason, a situation that is troubling to the host communities and the entire people of the North.
Many people around Bauchi and Gombe states interviewed on the uncanny development over the project explained that the absence of periodic progress reports on such a significant project has led to speculations and despair, considering the anticipated benefits of wealth creation, employment and national development.
Villagers from Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Dahiru Muhammad and Jamda Wakili specifically cited lack of political will as the bane of the now rested core oil investments that could help bail Nigeria out of the perennial oil crisis in the country.
Recall that former President Buhari had announced at the flag off ceremony that about three billion dollars investment had already been secured owing to the the exploration and drilling of oil already going on at Kolmani.
Apparently buoyed by the presumed success of Kolmani, Buhari, moved swiftly to inaugurate the resumption of oil search in the Lake Chad Basin, which had been halted for about three decades.
In May 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) resumed an oil drilling campaign at the Wadi-B well located in Jere LGA of Borno State.
President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the Wadi-B campaign at a landmark ceremony marking the commencement of oil exploration in the Lake Chad Basin, in the Tuba community of the state, which was stopped since 1995.
The new drilling was part of the prospects for oil and gas deposits in Nigeria’s frontier basins.
Speaking virtually on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 in Abuja at the Wadi-B Drilling Campaign which physically took place in Borno State, President Buhari 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 Basinal Analysis and Evaluation of all frontier basins leading to the successful drilling and discovery of crude oil and gas in commercial quantities in Kolmani River 2 and providing insight to the ongoing crude oil and gas drilling campaign in Nasarawa State as well the current re-entry activities into the Chad Basin.”
Buhari affirmed that the country stands to benefit immensely from a positive outcome of the operations.
Also at the flagoff ceremony, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, said: “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.
“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. This is a mission that we will take to delivery. We are very committed. It does not depend on Mele Kyari. It will work. This is a process, and this process has value, and this value will be created for Nigeria.
Noting that the search for oil and gas in the frontier basins of Chad, Sokoto, Anambra Platforms, Calabar Embarkment, Benue Trough, Dahomey, Bida and the Ultra Deepwater Niger Delta had spanned decades without significant outcomes, Kyari commended the singular determination of the President that led to the Kolmani oil find.
“However, the singular determination of Mr President to ensure optimum exploration and exploitation of our natural resources and Your Excellency’s consequential directives for NNPC Limited to strategize and utilize available human, technological and other material resources to prosecute exploration activities in all Frontier Basins resulted in the discovery of commercial oil and gas deposits in the Kolmani Prospect in April 2019,” Kyari added.
Though it is strongly believed in some quarters that the North has huge oil and deposits especially in the Chad Basin and the Benue Trough, only the exploration activities going on in Nasarawa State seems to be a success for now. But there are fears that the Kolmani fate may be lurking around for Nasarawa, especially given the way and manner the drilling activities in Kolmani were abruprly stopped without any explanation.
The resumed oil exploration in the Chad Basin is also said to have suffered the same fate.
Curiously too, the NNPC has maintained sealed lips over this vexed issue of ‘stop work’ in Kolmani. When all avenues of physical contact with the management of the conglomerate failed, Citizenship Daily decide to contact the organisation via a text message.
It reads: “Former President Buhari had said while in office that the NNPC Ltd had started drilling for oil and gas at a field in northern Nigeria, Kolmani confirmed to have 1 billion barrels of oil reserves and 500 billion cubic feet of gas.
“The former president Buhari had noted that phase one of the Kolmani project in the northeast was planned to have an oil refinery, gas processing unit, 300-megawatt power plant and fertilizer plant.
“The project, according to initial plans, was to be developed by NNPC, a local firm, Sterling Global Oil and New Nigeria Development Company, a conglomerate owned by the 19 northern states.
“We request a reaction from the NNPCL why the project was abandoned without explanation, and the drilling equipment moved out of site.
As at the time of going to press, this message had not been replied to, neither did the organisation bother to reach Citizenship Daily with any other form of response to explain the issues involved.
Similarly, the Northern state governments, owners of the NNDC who are partnering with the NNPCL in the Kolmani project have yet to say anything openly in response to the worrisome development on the project.
However, a source close to one of the northern governors told our correspondent in a telephone conversation that the matter is being handled by the state chief executives quietly and with diplomacy in order to persuade the NNPC to return to the Kolmani project.
