Nigeria’s state-owned oil giant launches its first drilling site in country’s north

Drilling for oil and gas began in Nigeria’s northeast this week, a first for the African oil giant, NNPC, which has exploited large deposits in the south for decades and whose production is declining.

During a visit in the Kolmani field, located in Gombe and Bauchi states, to inaugurate the drilling site, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that “the successful discovery of the Kolmani Oil and Gas field by NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited] and her partners has finally broken the jinx” after long efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the established Niger Delta Basin. In addition to drilling, the project with estimated reserves of over 1 billion barrels of crude — which has attracted $3 billion in investment — aims to open an oil refinery, a gas processing unit, a power plant and a fertilizer factory.

Buhari also urged the NNPC and its partners “to ensure all lessons learnt from our years of experience as an oil-producing nation are utilized to ensure harmonious relationship with the local communities.”

Oil exploitation in Nigeria began in the 1960s in the southeastern Niger Delta region. While decades of production have enriched government officials and generated huge profits for large foreign companies in particular, these main beneficiaries have been criticized for failing to ensure that the profits also trickle down to the majority of Nigerians who continue to live in poverty.

Especially the oil-rich Delta region suffers badly from pollution, and tens of thousands of people now make a living from stealing crude oil from pipelines or at sea, from illegal refineries that have sprung up in swampy and forested areas, and from selling fuel on the black market, causing ecological disasters.