Senate Backs Bill On Oil Exploration In The North The Senate yesterday unanimously backed a bill which will provide for the establishment of a stand-alone agency to explore new hydrocarbon deposits (oil and gas finds) in the Benue Trough and the Chad Basin in northern Nigeria. A Bill for an Act to provide for the establishment of the National Frontiers Basins Exploration Agency to execute, promote and oversee exploration activities in the inland sedimentary basins, sponsored by Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi/PDP), was unanimously passed yesterday by the Senate. The Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) was directed to perform further legislative work on the Bill and report back to plenary in two weeks. In the lead debates, Senator Adeyemi stated at plenary that with oil and gas accounting for about 90 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings and its economic backbone, “it is imperative to continue to search for more oil and gas to add to our reserves, if we are to maintain our lead as a major producer of oil in the world.” Adeyemi opined that with oil exploration in the north and towards the south east, the attendant economic activities that would arise therefrom would check the high level of poverty in the region. He told lawmakers that the agency will function to regulate exploration activities in all unassigned frontier acreages in Nigeria (Anambra, Benue Trough, Bida, Chad, Dahomey and Sokoto Basins) held by the agency. “The Agency shall be expected to generate exploration data on the frontiers basins and mature them for detailed exploration by itself on behalf of government and/or by multinational and indigenous operating companies,” Adeyemi said. He added: “The idea is to look beyond the prolific Niger Delta basin with good sedimentation and robust tectonic history such as the Anambra, Benin, Benue, Chad, Bida, Dahomey, Gongola, Sokoto and such other basins as may be determined in the future. It is instructive to note that oil finds have since been made in the Gongola Basiin of the Upper Benue Trough and in the Anambra Basins, respectively amongst others. “I profoundly believe that if oil could be found in Niger Republic and Ghana, it is possible that we can discover oil in the north. This venture would also present an equal opportunity for all parts of the country to contribute revenue from oil to the national coffers.” The proposed exploration agency, Senator Adeyemi said, would work to guarantee many sources of crude oil from different parts of the country. Contributing to the debate, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (Cross River/PDP) noted that it makes no common or geographical sense that there is oil in Niger and Chad republics and none in northern Nigeria. “Perhaps, we have not been zealous enough in our exploration of oil in the contiguous geographical basins. We need to legislate an agency that will force the hands if the operators to explore oil in the frontier basin,” Ndoma-Egba said. Similarly, Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe/APC) said: “We need to make this project a special project. We are on the right course. I want to emphasise that we need a stand-alone agency. We should work to ensure that this agency functions as an independent agency.” Senator Magnus Abe (Rivers/ PDP) cautioned against politicising the programme, but that all should focus on the benefits Nigeria has to gain. He added that the primary mandate of the proposed agency should not be to satisfy the politics of having oil in the north but expanding the country’s economic reserves. Senator OlubunmiAdetunmbi (Ekiti/APC) said: “This Bill has helped call the attention to the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which has remained pending. The issue of frontier exploration is a component of the PIB but here we are giving attention to it. We should extend the same action to PIB by getting the joint committee on PIB to hasten the process”. In his contribution, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu commended federal lawmakers for their unanimous support for the proposed agency irrespective of their regional affiliations. Ekweremadu: “Most times we spend more time sharing the national cake and not bake more cake. As usual you have shown your commitment to Nigeria. This will help is to create additional jobs for our teeming youths. Government should find constructive ways to provide jobs for our youths in order to secure our future.” #LEADERSHIP
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 07:13:42 +0000
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