NNPC tells Borno it is ready to drill again. Zulum says first restore the gas and fix the idle rigs

NNPC Ltd's search for oil in the north-east may be about to restart. The state oil company told Borno's governor last week that it is ready to go back, and the governor told it what he expects first.

The meeting

A delegation led by NNPC's board chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida, met Governor Babagana Zulum at Government House, Maiduguri, on Wednesday 28 October, Voice of Nigeria and Legit.ng reported. The Deputy Governor, Umar Usman Kadafur, and the Secretary to the State Government, Bukar Tijani, were among the state officials present.

The delegation said NNPC was ready to speed up plans to resume exploration in the Borno basin. Zulum pledged the state's full backing and said the basin, which spans seven local government areas and sits on borders with three countries, has real commercial potential.

Zulum's conditions

Operations have been stopped for more than two years, Legit.ng reported. Zulum rejected the idea that insecurity was the reason. Troops, police and Civilian JTF members are already deployed to guard the sites and the equipment, he said.

He set out two things he wants before work restarts. The first is gas: NNPC should honour an earlier commitment to supply gas for the project, whose withdrawal he said was a key reason activities were suspended. The second is the equipment itself, which has been idle for more than two years and needs upgrading.

He also raised the Maiduguri Emergency Power Plant. The materials for its upgrade have been on site for about two years and the work is not finished, he said, asking NNPC's management to step in. The delegation said the company would address the delays, Voice of Nigeria reported.

A solar power project for the region was also discussed. NNPC gave no date for resuming exploration.

The background

NNPC has drilled in the Chad Basin on and off since the 1970s without a commercial discovery. The current round of frontier work began in 2023, when a drilling campaign was flagged off near Maiduguri, and was later halted. Under the Petroleum Industry Act, frontier exploration is paid for from a share of NNPC's profit oil and gas, so it is public money.

What it means for you

For Borno, a restart means jobs, contracts and, if a find is ever made, a share of revenue for a state that has carried the cost of the insurgency for more than a decade. The more immediate gain for residents may be the power plant, if the governor's request moves it along.

For the rest of the country, the question is the one it has always been: whether there is commercial oil in the Chad Basin at all. Nobody has found it yet. Watch for an actual restart date and for any word on results from the wells already drilled before judging this as more than a meeting.