The president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has inaugurated the first commercial production of crude oil and gas in Northern Nigeria with oil fields located in Bauchi and Gombe States.
The Kolmani project, with Oil Prospecting Licence 809 and 810, is situated in the Gongola Basin of the Upper Benue Trough, straddling the two Northern states of Gombe and Bauchi.
According to the field’s promoters, it will begin producing about 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day and has over a billion barrels of reserves, bringing Nigeria’s total oil reserves to more than 38 billion barrels.
In his address at the event, Buhari said the facility attracted $3bn worth of investments despite the lack of appetite in the oil sector.
According to The PUNCH, he said, “Considering the land locked location and the huge capital requirement, the economics of the project is a challenging proposition.
“Consequently, from the onset, I instructed NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Company) Limited to utilise and leverage their vast asset portfolio across all corridors of its operations to de-risk the project to attract the much-needed investment. I have directed NNPC to continue along these lines.
“It is, therefore, to the credit of this administration that at a time when there is near zero appetite for investment in fossil energy, coupled with the location challenges, we are able attract investment of over $3bn to this project.”
Buhari described the ceremony as important in the economic history of Nigeria, “as we move closer to production of oil and gas in the Upper Benue Trough, specifically, the Kolmani River oil and gas field, straddling Bauchi and Gombe states.”
