Oil exploration workers on site. Nigeria is intensifying search for gas to increase crude oil production by 2020

Nigerian National Petroleum Corperation (NPP) has called on its partners in the oil exploration exercise to speed up the search for the oil in all marked reserve areas, with immediate effect.

This follows a directive from Nigeria Minister of Petroleum resources Diezani Alison-Madueke in which he asked the cooperation not to “leave any stone unturned” in the nation’s newest search for oil especially as the cooperation embarks on analysis of Chad Basin in the North eastern part of the country.

The call for oil vigorous search on the backdrop that the nation is hatching plans to increase its exploration to hit the mark of 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production by 2020, compared to 110,000 bpd towards the end of 2014 and “barely 60,000 bpd” in 2009.

“Though it is too early to be categorical, there is a possibility that we may find oil in commercial quantities in the Chad Basin because of the discoveries of commercial hydrocarbon deposits in the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Sudan, which have similar structural settings with the Chad Basin. Therefore, it is prudent to aggressively explore the Chad Basin for possible hydrocarbon deposits.” The minister noted in a statement released by NNP

NNP general manager for public affairs Levi Ajuonuma in a statement said the corporation is looking at critical analysis of its earlier marked reserves across the country as opposed to the ongoing perception that the search only targets the Chad Basin