NUPENG Lauds FG Over Hydrocarbon Mapping

The Zonal Chairman of NUPENG, (Port Harcourt Zone), Comrade Godwin Eruba has commended the federal government’s move to approve the execution of a comprehensive hydrocarbon mapping of the country by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The NUPENG boss who made the commendation during an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt recently explained that because the hydrocarbon mapping is designed to pinpoint the most prospective oil and gas zones in the country it help in the issuance of licences to oil mining prospectors.

According to him it is  not only pinpoints the oil bearing and producing states but also helps in knowing the quantity  of oil that are there.

It would be recalled that NNPC in the last six months has intensified the search for commercial crude in the Chad Basin which is part of the Nigerian Frontier Inland.

Inclusive in the NFISB are Anambra State, Bida, Dahomey, Gongola, Yola and Sokoto basins alongside the middle/lower Benue.

The Group  General Manager, Group Public Affairs, NNPC, Dr. Levi  Ajuonuma was reported as also saying that the comprehensive hydrocarbon mapping project which will be the first in the over 100 years history of crude oil exploration in Nigeria is designed to guarantee precision and exactitude in the evaluation of data in the course of exploration of inland basins.

Describing the drive by NNPC to increase the nation’s crude oil reserves as in top gear, Ajuonuma said they have the complete support of President Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resource top go full throttle.

He explained that the idea is to look beyond the prolific Niger Delta Basins with good sedimentation and robust  history.

A renowned geophysicist and consultant to the United Nations, Prof. Deborah Ajakaiye working in consultation with NFISB in the search noted that the hydrocarbon mapping exercise include the aerial and ground survey of the country designed to specify areas of high potential and identify most prospective oil and gas zones.

According to her “the project entails the comprehensive and systematic airborne geophysical surveys involving gravity, magnetic and electromagnetic surveys of the inland basins with state of the art equipment. It also involves detailed integrated programme of geophysical, geological, petrological  and geochemical studies.

She also lauded the federal government for taking up the challenge of accelerated, intensive, comprehensive and systematic exploration of the long neglected inland basins.

She said any commercial discovery based on the outcome of the project would foster the attractiveness of the basins for huge investment opportunities by international oil companies with the attendant massive economic benefits for the host communities and the country as a whole.