(Ecofin Agency) - The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru (photo), has announced that subsequent to the acquisition and processing of more than 1,900 km² of new 3D seismic in Chad Basin, the corporation will begin drilling in early 2017.

According to Baru, the drilling will commence after assessing the results gathered from the interpretation of the data. He added that the corporation would restart oil exploration activities in some of the inland basins, which include the Chad Basin and the Benue Trough because its neighbors in Niger and Chad had successful commercial oil and gas finds within their portions of the Chad Basin and have been producing from these fields.

“There is no need re-inventing the wheel. We are now progressing with the use of exploratory techniques that have worked on their own side of the Basin to prove up our side. This will also provide a vista for NAPE and its professionals to further analyse the concept of oil generation, expulsion and entrapment in rift basins which we now know is different from the Niger Delta Basin that we are used to,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Savannah Petroleum PLC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the New Nigeria Development Company Ltd (NNDC) and Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) regarding the partnership between the three parties in the Nigerian section of the Central African Rift System. Under the terms of the MOU, the parties will set up Technical and Steering Committees to control the process of assessing the technical and commercial prospectively of the underexplored region.

Savannah hopes to sign further agreements over time with NNDC and NNPC and is currently in talks with its new partners as regards the search for other potential opportunities in Nigeria.

Anita Fatunji