120 days on, NNPC keeps Nigerians incommunicado on Gongola Basin oil search
After assuring stakeholders of making public, the result of the hydrocarbon exploration after 60 days search, for more than 120 days after, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is yet to inform Nigerians whether there is progress or not on the drilling activities at the spud-in of Kolmani River-II Well in Gongola Basin in Bauchi State.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari was at the ceremonial flag off of the search activities which the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is yet to make public the real cost of the entire endless hydrocarbon search up north.
Already, some industry experts are beginning to express worry on the more than two months silence upon the use of scare public fund.
Whereas some contacted industry experts say the scheme may not have drained not less than $3bn, other decried why the government failed to use statistics and earlier failed exploration details released by Shell and Mobil to end search for oil and gas in commercial quantity in the north and face integrated development in the Niger Delta.
In an interview, the Chief Executive Officer, Mudiame International Limited, and Mudiame Welding Institute Limited, Sunny Eromosele, decried by the NNPC had continued to be silence on their findings at Gongola Basin.
According to him, “If people must trust them (NNPC), there is a need for information on the activities. We have wasted so much money searching for oil in the inland basins despite the fact that we have not been able to fully develop what we have in the Niger Delta region. It is good if we find oil there, but we could as well channel these resources into the economic diversification plans.
He expressed worry on back and forth economic policy of the government especially with regard to economic diversification.
While recalling that “The government said they want to diversify the economy to agriculture and other areas,” Eromosele queried “Why investing in same oil and gas they want to move away from?
“They are frustrating and setting the country back by wasting the little resources gotten from oil. Let them proved to us evidence of what they have done. The earlier, the better, because the world is moving on without Nigeria; and investors are moving to East of Africa because they offer better policies,” he noted.
Besides, many other industry experts are worried on why a lot of long discovered oil and gas wells that have strong commercial exploration value in parts of South East and even in Niger Delta including parts of Nsugbe in Anambra and Eddah, in Ebonyi States are stilled not in the development plans of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, rather scare resources are being drained searching for what had been searched in the past without results upon the economic diversification campaign.
