By Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri
Where are our investigative reporters? Where are our development researchers? One thing we need to find out now is how much the sinkhole called ‘frontier basin development’ has gulped in the last 5, 10, 15, 20 years.
In simple terms, Nigeria is exploring other sedimentary basins, including Bida, Gongola, Sokoto, Benue Trough and Dahomey, in an attempt to diversify the country’s hydrocarbon resources to complement over 93 per cent of Nigeria’s oil production which comes from the Niger Delta basin alone.
The Chad basin is the largest, crisscrossing countries like Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroun Republics. Only about 10 per cent of the Chad basin lies within North-East Nigeria. The good news is that the exploratory activities in the basins have significantly opened up the country’s huge gas potentials. Of the 23 dry wells drilled in the Chad basin, only the Wadi-1 and Kinasar-1 wells recorded non-commercial gas accumulations. But oil? I find no convincing data showing that frontier basin development in Nigeria has yielded new oil finds in commercial quantities.
But the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) wants 30 per cent of NNPC profits to go into this same sinkhole called frontier basin development. The ball is now in the court of local councilors and state governors.
All revenues should rightly go to the federation account to be shared by the federal, state and local tiers of the federation. Remember, Nigerian governors (led by Rotimi Amaechi) took Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to court for daring to save money from the excess crude account in the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Amaechi demanded immediate sharing of money from the Excess Crude Account (ECA), insisting that the ECA funds must be channeled into the federation account as stipulated by law. So, would Nigerian governors repeat this feat? On what basis is the PIB setting aside a whooping 30 per cent of NNPC profits to frontier basin development, without subjecting the allocation to the rigors of appropriation?
Finally, past exploratory initiatives in other parts of the country (especially in the Niger Delta basins) have been initiated and undertaken primarily by private investors –Shell Petroleum, SNEPCo, Exxon Mobil, Agip, Chevron etc. Why is the Nigerian state taking over this role? Why are private investors avoiding similar exploratory investments in the frontier basins? Is that a sign of project non-viability or outright waste of funds?
And finally, finally, what happened to the much-touted transition to a low-carbon future? Is Nigeria no longer interested in exiting a mono-economy hinged on crude oil? Is the planned diversification of the economy just a myth? Are these plans dead on arrival?
Just thinking aloud on a Monday morning…
Mrs. Ibezim-Ohaeri is Director, Spaces for Change [S4C], a non-profit organization based in Nigeria that conducts cutting-edge research and advocacy focusing on strategic sectors such as urban governance, gender inclusion, energy policy, and defending the civic space