The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Halliburton Corporation have reached
an agreement that will speed up oil discovery in the inland sedimentary
basins.
The
cooperation will aid the United States based firm to achieve the exact location
of viable crude oil deposits in the area.
Group
General Manager, Research and Development Division of the NNPC, Dr. Bola
Afolabi, said in Port Harcourt that the collaboration with Halliburton will
help fast-track the inland basin exploration efforts through the use of the
innovative Neftex solution designed to provide exactitude in drilling for oil.
He said the
Halliburton Neftex solution, would provide a geophysical mapping structure of
the country, and complement the ongoing in-house efforts by the NNPC research
centre to develop what is known as ‘Turonian Cenomanian Cretaceous source rock’
for all the basins in Nigeria. This, essentially, seeks to identify all the
prolific basins in Nigeria by locating the cretaceous kitchen, that is, areas
where large crude deposits could be found.
He said the
collaborative research with Halliburton, which had crossed the 65 per cent
threshold, would take 18 months to complete.
“We are so
excited about this project and with the assured support of the Group Managing
Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, our projection is that by the turn of next
year, we should be able to help the frontier basin team achieve a pin-point
location of possible commercial oil finds for eventual drilling activities,” he
said.
The GGM also
informed that research work had reached advance stage on the Federal Government
commissioned project assigned by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC), to classify Nigeria’s crude oil and natural gas.
He also
stated that the NNPC research centre was already working on a project to
enhance production from existing assets by introducing a cost effective and
reliable alternative to drilling new wells. Already successful pilot scheme has
been executed in collaboration with its strategic partners – Cypher Crescent
Limited.
Established
in 1977 to provide solution to operational and technical challenges of the
Nigerian oil and gas industry, the NNPC R&D Division currently has on its
employ, three professors, 12 Ph.D holders and a handful of masters degree
graduates in various fields of the sciences ranging from geology to chemistry
and physics.
Under the
ongoing NNPC restructuring, the projection is to transform the 40-year old
research outfit into an autonomous and well-equipped one-stop shop technology
centre in the frontline of petroleum technology development efforts in the west
coast of Africa and beyond.
Guardian
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