(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it has put exploration for crude in the Lake Chad Basin on hold, due to attacks on its workers and some military personnel by Boko Haram. Briefing the press in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu (photo), said the suspension of the exercise was necessary until the military could give the corporation approval to resume oil search in the region.

“Certainly, we will not go back unless the military give us a clearance, just like we didn’t go in before they gave us a clearance. The reality is that anytime the NNPC decides to go into a terrain, it first gets the privilege of security advice and that security advice, I can say, was sufficiently cleared,” he said.

It should be recalled that an NNPC Frontier Exploration Services and Surface Geochemistry Sampling crew which include nine external consultants from the University of Maiduguri, military personnel and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force were attacked by Boko Haram on Tuesday. According to Kachikwu, the team was returning to Maiduguri after conducting a geological study of parts of the Lake Chad Basin, in preparation for the recommencement of seismic activities.

The Northeastern part of Nigeria has been tormented for eight years by an Islamist insurgency that has killed at least 20,000 people and forced about 2.7 million to flee their homes. The state oil company has for over a year explored oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin in an effort to reduce reliance on the southern Niger Delta oil hub, which last year was hit by militant attacks on oil facilities.

Although the Nigerian government and the military have often said that the Islamic group was on the verge of defeat, the insurgents have in the past few months repeatedly launched attacks in the region.

Anita Fatunji