Nigeria set for exploratory oil drilling in Chad Basin – Kachikwu

Nigeria will soon begin exploratory drilling in search of oil in the north eastern Chad Basin region by October, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has said.
According to a report by Reuters, the country may be on the verge of a significant oil find in the Lake Chad area, NNPC said on Sunday that seismic studies were on-going.
“Drilling activities will commence by the last quarter of 2016,” the Minister who is also in charge of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was quoted as saying in the statement issued by the company.
Nigerian economy has been hit hard by the sharp fall in global oil prices because it relies on crude exports for around 70 percent of government revenue.
NNPC spokesman Garba Deen Muhammad told Reuters that exploration in the region was intended to “add value to the hydrocarbon potentials of the Nigerian inland basin, provide investment opportunities, boost the economy as well as create millions of new jobs”.