Nigeria to resume Chad Basin exploration

ABUJA, May 5, 2015 – The state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is planning to resume oil exploration in the Chad Basin following Nigerian security forces’ advances against Boko Haram militants in the country’s northeast, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The company said in a statement that it would resume exploration activities in “the next couple of days” in light of the “remarkably improved security situation” in the region.

According to E&P Magazine, the Nigerian government invested $240 million dollars in oil and gas exploration in the Lake Chad Basin and other parts of northern Nigeria, but that plans for exploration were brought to a halt by the Boko Haram insurgency in 2014.

A US Geological Survey assessment in 2010 suggested the Chad Basin, which stretches across northern Nigeria as well as Chad and Niger, could contain 2.3 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves and 413 bcm (14.6 tcf) of natural gas.

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