Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Abdul Sule, has said that the Ebenyi-1 well drilling campaign in Obi Local Government Area (LGA) of the State will soon be completed, with the oil find estimated at 1 billion barrels.
The Governor disclosed this during an interview on Tuesday, where he said that the level of progress in the Well drilling campaign in Obi LGA, which was successfully spudded by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited in March, has gone far and is almost complete.
Sule also expressed that the reason for the said level of progress is because the well is roughly over 18,000 meters, with a rig that has been working efficiently. He stated that he had been to the site a number of times, and that the people in the communities have been very cooperative and, from all indications, there are no problems in the area.
According to him, the hydrocarbon deposits found in the various areas of Nasarawa State are under the Benue Trough, which begins in Calabar, through Benue all the way to Nasarawa, Plateau, and extends to Gombe State. He also pointed out that the claim that the hydrocarbon deposits in Nasarawa State were discovered as far back as in 2010, which was when the geographic acquisition was made.
The Governor cited the hydrocarbon discoveries being made in Nasarawa, Borno, and Gombe as being similar to the discoveries made in the northern part of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, which has up to 1 billion to 10 billion barrels capacity.
While speaking during the interview, he said that the just commissioned Wadi-B Well in the Jere LGA of Borno State has an estimated 900 million barrels capacity, while Gombe has been estimated to have about a billion barrels of oil and Nasarawa has been estimated to have over a billion barrels of oil.
Sule noted that a lot of work still needs to be done in Nasarawa when it comes to oil and gas development. He said after the appraisal well is drilled, a development plan will be worked on, and funding for the project will be required