SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, (THEWILL) – Oil exploratory activities in the Lake Chad Basin in parts of Borno State have been put on hold following recent attacks on Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, staffers and some military personnel by the Boko Haram terror sect.
This was made known on Thursday by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, who told reporters that the exercise had to be put on hold until the state oil corporation gets sufficient clearance to resume its oil search in the region from the military.
While commiserating with the families of victims killed by the insurgents, he pointed out that NNPC got the neccesary clearance from security agencies before embarking on the trip last Tuesday.
The minister regretted that the team was ambushed by terrorists, asserting that no work will continue at the site anytime soon.
The discovery of oil in commercial quantity in neighboring Chad Republic had spurred the NNPC, on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari, to intensify and focus its exploratory work in the inland basins on areas around the Chad Basin and Benue Trough.
The state oil company, in November 2016, resumed exploratory activities in Gubio; Magumeri; Monguno; Kukawa; Abadam; Guzamala; and Mobar, after getting security assurance from the military.
