About one billion barrels of crude oil has been discovered in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva disclosed.
Sylva said that more crude oil would still be discovered and explored in other parts of the country.
The disclosure was made at the 2020 Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) held in Abuja.
Sylva’s words: “The figure we are getting, the jury is not totally out yet but from the evaluation results we are getting the reserve that has been discovered in the northeast is about a billion barrels.
“Those are the kind of figures we are seeing and we are beginning to understand the geological structure of the region.”
Commenting on the Petroleum Industry Bill ( PIB), Sylva expressed optimism that the bill would be passed in June 2020 because of the cordial relationship that exists between the legislature and the executive.
“Today Nigerians all agree that there is a need for us to pass the PIB. For so long we have been quivering about the PIB, for more than 20 years. And for so long, we have not been able to attract a lot of investment into the oil sector.
“Let me give you an example, by the year 2002, our oil reserves stood at around 22 billion barrels. We were able to grow that reserve from 22 billion barrels to 37 billion barrels by 2007,” the minister added.
What you should know: The Petroleum Bill is one of the oldest bills in the Nigerian Legislature. It seeks to promote best practices in the management of the extraction of Nigeria’s oil and it was first introduced in 2008 by the then President Umaru Yaradua.
It is also intended to deregulate and liberalise the downstream petroleum sector, create efficient and effective regulatory agencies and promote transparency and openness in the administration of the petroleum resources in Nigeria.