FG halts Kolmani oil drilling 16 months after flag-off

The exploration of crude oil exploration activities at the Kolmani Oil Field has become dormant 16 months after a presidential inauguration of exploration activities on the site. In the twilight of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, precisely in November 2022, NNPC Limited, in partnership with New Nigeria Development Company, started drilling crude oil at two oil blocks in Kolmani Oil Field, OPL809 and OPL810 accordingly. Similarly, the projection of crude oil deposits in Kolmani, which traversed both Bauchi and Gombe states, was pegged at about one billion barrels of crude oil deposit and about 500bcf. Exploration on the field was expected to last up to 2060. The Kolmani oil blocks were projected to generate about 50,000 barrels of crude oil every day. However, a resident of the Kolmani area said that drilling on the site has been suspended since the presidential inauguration and nothing tangible has been done. “About a year ago, we saw how NNPCL moved most of the drilling equipment to Nasarawa State but since then nothing has been going on here. Some of the equipment was taken to Lake Chad, leaving Kolmani with virtually nothing,” he emphasized. Of the five oil wells in Kolmani, only about two were developed.