NNPC: Nigeria On The Verge Of Discovering Large Oil Deposits In Lake Chad

The Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ibe Kachikwu has on Sunday in a statement announced that Nigeria is “on the verge of a significant oil find” in the Lake Chad area of the northeast.

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Mr. Kachikwu, who stated this during his presentation to the Petroleum Club, Lagos, over the weekend, entitled: “Ongoing Reforms in the Oil Industry: Impact of NNPC Reforms on the Nigerian Economy,” also added that the NNPC is injecting a lot of energy into oil exploration in the Chad area to ensure success in this regard.

He said: “There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may well be very close to being found now in Lake Chad after very many years of trials. I think that this is very key. It is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and it is also very key for the purpose of refinery placement in the north in terms of access to crude. I am optimistic that by the end of the year we should be able to announce something major on this.”

Kachikwu also said passing the long-delayed Petroleum Industry Bill aimed at overhauling the oil sector, and to encourage investment in the country’s oil and gas industry is very important at the moment.

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Meanwhile, the NNPC in a statement in Abuja also stated that it was projecting the inflow of $20 billion in 2016 to enable it fund major projects and improve its bottom line going forward.