21-07-08 Northern Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) and the African Finance Corporation (AFC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will ensure full oil exploration activities around the Benue trough and the Chad basin next year.
This was disclosed when the Group Managing Director of NNDC, Alhaji Aliyu Alkali and the Executive Vice-President of AFC, Mr Solomon Asamoah, signed the MoU that would ensure that the region's oil and gas reserve of more than 100 bn cubic litres is exploited.

According to the GMD of NNDC, the development of the hydrocarbon potentials of the four oil blocks the company has, OPLs 809 and 810 in the Benue trough and 722 and 733 in the Chad Basin would contribute to the growth of the oil industry in the north and Nigeria in general.
Alkali, who said that signing of the MoU would lead to the generation of 20 MW of electricity from the expected discovery in OPL 809 alone, before August 2010, added that a fertilizer plant and further expansion of capacity for generation of more electricity is also planned upon further discovery of gas in the remaining OPLs.

Giving a history of NNDC's efforts toward the exploration of oil and gas in the north, Alkali said, "in the Benue trough which is between Bauchi and Gombe states, a few wells had been drilled by multinationals from 1999 to date."
On OPL 809, he said Shell had conducted a work programme on the block and drilled one well named Kolmani River-1 in 1999. The hydrocarbon phase encountered in the well, according to him, was essentially a gas and condensates phase estimated to have minimum gas reserves of between 33 bn to 100 bn cf. He said that having been satisfied with the available reserves of hydrocarbon in the areas, the NNDC started shopping for a technical partner culminating in the signing of MoU with the AFC.

The AFC vice president, who revealed that the AFC is contributing about $ 50 mm to the project, added that the amount would be increased as the project progresses.
Asamoah who also said that that the north should have oil in the next one year, added that the ability to generate power is a critical component of development and that with the signing of the MoU, the north and Nigeria in general is on the right track toward development.