President Buhari Flags Off Production Of Oil In Commercial Quantity In Bauchi, Gombe

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday, inaugurated the commercial production of crude oil and gas from the Kolmani Integrated Development Project.

Located along the fields of Gombe and Bauchi, the Kolmani project, with Oil Prospecting Licence 809 and 810, lies in the Gongola Basin of the Upper Benue Trough, straddling the two Northern states.

The field, according to its promoters, is to start producing about 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day and holds over one billion barrels of crude oil reserves, shooting up Nigeria’s oil reserves to over 38 billion barrels.

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In his address at the event, Buhari said the facility attracted $3bn worth of investments despite the lack of appetite in the oil sector.

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 utilize 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.”

By Okechukwu Nnodim