President Muhammadu Buhari has on Tuesday flagged-off the first oil drilling field, Kolmani Integrated Development Project (KIPRO) in Bauchi and Gombe States.
The Kolmani Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 809 and 810 at the Kolmani field site will be the first oil drilling in Northern Nigeria.
President Buhari being welcomed to the oil drilling field
The opening ceremony of the Kolmani Project was graced by Governors, Ministers and top government officials, including Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Recall that oil was first discovered in commercial volume in the region about two years ago.
This exploration in Bauchi and Gombe will be the first after an attempt in the Borno region was halted by insecurity.
President Buhari and other top government officials at the opening ceremony
The first phase of the project is expected to entail an in-situ oil refinery with a capacity of up to 120, 000 barrels per day, a gas processing plant of up to 500 million standard cubic feet per day, a power plant of up to 300MW capacity, and a fertiliser plant of 2,500 tons per day.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, President Buhari stated that, Buhari said that the successful discovery of the Kolmani oil and gas field by NNPC and her partners has finally broken the jinx by confirmation of a huge commercial deposit of hydrocarbons in Kolmani River Field.
“This is indeed significant considering that efforts to find commercial oil and gas outside the Niger Delta Basin was attempted for many years without the desired outcomes,” he stated.
According to reports, the oil field in Bauchi and Gombe axis will be developed by Sterling Global Oil, New Nigeria Development Commission (NNDC) and NNPC Limited.
