Hydrocarbon Mapping in Nigeria

[Reported by 234next.com] The federal government is set to carry out a comprehensive hydrocarbon mapping of Nigeria’s oil and gas basins to ensure the efficient exploration for the natural resources across the inland sedimentary areas. The initiative follows the considerable progress recorded in recent times by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in its oil exploration activities to discover oil in the country’s portion of the Chad Basin. Indications are that in the last six months the NNPC has intensified the search for a commercial crude oil find in the Chad Basin, in line with the present administration’s aspiration to achieve increased crude oil production capacity and reserve. The Chad Basin forms part of Nigerian Frontier Inland Sedimentary Basins, consisting Anambra, Bida, Dahomey, Gongola/Yola and Sokoto basins alongside the Middle/Lower Benue Trough.

First in 100 years:

NNPC’s general manager, group public affairs, Levi Ajuonuma, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja said the hydrocarbon mapping project, which would be the first in the over 100 years history of crude oil exploration in the country, is designed to guarantee precision and exactitude in the evaluation of data in the course of exploration of the inland basins.

“The idea is to look beyond the prolific Niger Delta Basin and extend the search to some other basins with good sedimentation and robust tectonic history,” Mr. Ajuonuma said.

He said the charge for crude oil find in the Chad basin initiative is being spearheaded by the NNPC’s New Frontier Exploration Services Division, which is also working in consultation with a renowned expert, the United Nations geophysicist and consultant, Deborah Ajakaiye, to ensure that the entire Nigerian Frontier Inland Sedimentary Basins to carry out the proposed hydrocarbon mapping.

According to the consultant, a former president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (Africa Region), who also worked on similar prospects in Saudi Arabia, Chad, Sudan, Argentina and some other Latin America and African countries, the hydrocarbon mapping exercise is programmed to cover the aerial and ground survey of the country, to pin-point areas of high potentials as well as identify most prospective oil and gas zones.

“This project entails the comprehensive and systematic airborne geophysical surveys involving gravity, magnetic and electromagnetic surveys of the inland basins with state of the art equipment. It also involves detail integrated programme of geophysical, geological, petrological and geochemical studies,” Mrs. Ajakaiye said.

On the progress of exploration activities in the Chad Basin, Mrs. Ajakaiye remarked that the targeted reservoirs in the ongoing 3D seismic survey in the Chad Basin are staked reservoirs modeled after similar reservoirs of the neighbouring oil producing basins in Chad and Cameroon.