Almost three decades after leaving the location due to the revelation that the oil find at the time was not in commercial quantity, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) officially started its drilling campaign in the Chad Basin, Borno State, yesterday.

The recent discovery of oil in the Kolmani River, which spans the states of Gombe and Bauchi, according to the NNPC, by a thorough evaluation of the potential of finding further deposits in the country's peripheral basins.

Speaking at the ceremony of the Wadi-B drilling campaign in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, President Muhammadu Buhari reaffirmed that the goal of the north's oil exploration is to increase the nation's reserves, which are currently estimated to be 37 billion barrels. According to him, active drilling operations were put on hold in 1995 to allow for a thorough appraisal of exploration efforts across the board in the frontier basins.

Since then, the NNPC has conducted in-depth basinal analysis and evaluation of oil frontier indices, which has successfully led to the discovery of crude oil and gas in commercial quantities in Kolmani River 2 and given insight into the ongoing drilling campaign for crude oil and gas in Nasarawa State as well as the current re-entry activities into the Chad Basin. The rise in the nation's crude oil and gas reserves and production, improved national energy security, and more wealth for people are the expected positive outcomes of the Chad Basin exploration programme.

With the help of NNPC Limited, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), government security agencies, and other stakeholders, such as the people and government of Borno State, the president declared that he was looking forward to a successful drilling campaign at the Chad Basin.

According to Komolafe Chief Executive of NUPRC, one of the main regulatory goals of the NUPRC was to increase Nigeria's national oil reserves from their current level of 37 billion barrels of oil to 40 billion barrels of oil by the year 2030. Komolafe pointed out that, given the promising prospectivity results so far, the initiative was in line with the goals of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which allowed the commission to set up an exploration fund to reduce the risk of exploration in frontier basins.

Komolafe gave the assurance that NNPC, the biggest firm in Africa, will fulfil its promise to make energy affordable and available as Nigeria tapped its resources for the benefit of its expanding people.