NNPC starts Sokoto Basin exploration

ABUJA, September 22, 2017 – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced it had started the process of exploring the Sokoto Basin, local media reported Thursday.

The NOC has purchased aeromagnetic data and contracted a company to perform the geological mapping of the basin. Outcrop samples have been collected, mapped and analysed as well. Negotiations with Integrated Data Services to perform the surface geochemistry, ground gravity and magnetics contract are ongoing. Exploration drilling will begin after 2D- and 3D-seismic surveys are completed.

“We have been on the issue of exploration in the frontier basins and so far some measures of steps have been taken,” NNPC’s group managing director, Maikanti Kachalla Baru, reportedly said.

In January 2017, the NNPC announced it would partner with Schlumberger in order to explore hydrocarbon reserves in the Chad Basin and elsewhere inland. In July 2017, at least 30 people were killed in the kidnapping and subsequent rescue attempt of oil survey workers in the Chad Basin area by suspected Boko Haram militants.

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