NNPC resumes oil exploration in Borno as peace returns

By Patrick Andrew Abuja Th e Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Kachallah Baru has said the corporation has concluded arrangement to mobilize heavy and sophisticated equipments to resume oil exploration in the Lake Chad Basin of Borno state. He said, the resumption which will be done in the next six months was based on the military’s assurance to provide adequate security couple with the relative peace being enjoyed in the state presently and the degrading of boko Haram insurgents in the state and north east sub region.

Baru stated this when he led top management team of NNPC on a state working visit to consult stakeholders and community leaders when they paid a courtesy call to Governor Kashim Shettima at the Government House, Maiduguri today Monday. Represented by the Chief Operations Offi cer who is alsi the Executive Director, Gas and Power, Engineer Saidu Mohammed, said, they were in the state to sympathize with government and people of the state who had suff ered devastating Air Peace explains suspension of fl ights to Asaba From left: Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation in Europe (NIDOE), Dr. Paul Eke; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, President, Oil and Minerals for Good Global Forum, Dr. Mark Osa Igiehon and Managing Director, AIMRE Consulting, Dr. Jesse Andrawus, during the offi cial presentation of a report on new Nigeria oil and gas framework and policy to the minster by NIDOE in Abuja, recently Photo: Tidzalla Zacchaeus attacks and destruction by insurgents and also to explore areas where NNPC will come in and assist the people and government of the state as part of its corporate social responsibilities. He said, “We are here in Borno to express our full alignment to the ongoing Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement process by government in all the liberated communities.

“Th erefore, NNPC want to appeal and seek where it can come in and assist, because, the rate of devastation is worrisome. ” We are also in the state to inform you that in the next 6 weeks, we are going to redeploy our team of experts back to Maiduguri to resume oil exploration with better technology in the Lake Chad Basin. “Th is is necessary with our renewed eff orts in harnessing, Oil, Gas and Power to increase the economy of the nation, in line with the agenda of president Muhammadu Buhari on job creation and economic diversifi cation”. Responding, Governor Shettima thanked the team for the visit, and NNPC’s resolve to resume oil exploration in the region. He said his administration will partner with NNPC to actualize its mission, as according to him, the exploration when concluded will not only generate revenue, but create employment opportunities to the people across the country, particularly, north east region.

He therefore appealed to NNPC to assist the state government in reconstructing and rebuilding thousands of schools and furnitures hitherto destroyed by insurgents, stressing that the education sector remains the only means of fi ghting poverty, that associated with emergence of boko haram. Th e team also paid courtesy on the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Garbai El- Kanemi in His Palace, where the Monarch equally solicited support of NNPC in the ongoing reconstruction and resettlement of millions of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs back to their liberated communities.

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