Boko Haram: Nigerian Government Halts Oil Exploration In Lake Chad Basin

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation​, NNPC,​ has suspended exploration for crude oil in the Lake Chad Basin​.

This followed attacks on its workers and some military personnel by Boko Haram.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, ​Thursday ​said the exercise ​will be put on hold until the military could give the sufficient clearance to resume oil search in the region.

Kachikwu, who commiserated with the families of those killed​, ​said​ “The reality is that anytime the NNPC decides to go into a terrain, it first gets the privilege of security advice and that security advice, I can say, was sufficiently cleared​”.​

“Certainly, we will not go back unless they (military) give us a clearance, just like we didn’t go in before they gave us a clearance,” the minister said.

The oil found in commercial quantity in neighbouring Chad Republic had encouraged the NNPC, on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari, to intensify and focus its exploratory work in the inland basin on the Chad Basin and Benue Trough areas.

In November 2016, the corporation resumed exploration activities in Gubio, Magumeri, Monguno, Kukawa, Abadam, Guzamala and Mobar, after getting security advice from the military.

​On how the Tuesday attack happened, Kachikwu stated that the NNPC Frontier Exploration Services and Surface Geochemistry Sampling crew comprising of three consultants attached to the FES and the Integrated Data Services Limited, nine external consultants from the University of Maiduguri, military personnel and members of the Civilian Joint Task Force were ambushed by Boko Haram.

He said the team was returning to Maiduguri after conducting a survey mapping/geological study of parts of the Lake Chad Basin, in preparation for re-entry for seismic activities.