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Page 2 of 2 The Senate yesterday urged President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to direct the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to resume exploration of crude oil on the Nigerian side of the Chad Basin and the Benue Trough.
Moving a motion on behalf of 54 other senators, Senator Bala Mohammed told the apex lawmaking body that huge volumes of hydrocarbons have been discovered in Niger and Chad Republics due to persistent exploration activities on their side of the river basins. In attempting to resolve the huge energy crisis in the country due to non availability of crude oil and gas feedstock, renewed exploration activities in these basins are required through the provision of incentives to attract new investors, Senator Mohammed said. The Senate, therefore, called on the Federal Government to facilitate the financing of oil exploration in the region as well as in the Anambra basin. He further stated that instead of government plans to lay gas pipes from the Niger Delta to the North, the 33 billion cubic feet of gas found at Kolmani River-1 at Alkaleri, Bauchi State, holds a gas reservoir capable of effectively providing the entire Northern parts of the country with alternative power, thereby saving government spending and the attendant ecological degradation along pipeline routes. In his contribution to the motion, Senator George Sekibo said additional oil exploration in the country will not only improve the economic standing of the country, but also increase its global status among the comity of nations. Senator Bala Mohammed said it could be recalled that the 5th Senate after conducting public hearings on the matter, resolved to call on the NNPC to expedite action on the studies of various data collected from the Benue Trough and the Nigerian sector of the Chad Basin.
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