By Dickson Pat

Barring any last minute change in plans, President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday conduct the Presidential flag-off of Ebenyi-A Exploration Well located hat Obi Local government Area in Nasarawa.
The flag-off by the President will mark the exploration of crude oil in Nasarawa State by the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd.
Through exploratory activities, the NNPC had found that there is a significant amount of oil in the state.
The NNPC had commenced exploration activities in the state in 2010 and had technically found a petroleum environment in the state.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari had during a meeting with the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule said the company would continue to do its best to bring immediate value to Nigerians
He said, “This work must be done very fast because the whole world is walking away from fossil fuels due to the energy transition, the earlier you go to market, the better for you.
“We have seen a great potential for finding hydrocarbon in Nasarawa State. We are very optimistic that it would be a successful exercise.
‘It will not end there, once you find oil, you do further works to develop it not just for the benefit of the community around it but for Nasarawa State and the country.”
He added, “Once we test this prospect, it opens new roads and we have seen other great prospects across many parts of the state. This will herald history and bring value to all of us.”
According to him, exploratory activities found that there is a significant amount of oil in the state.
The NNPC Ltd had in January announced the discovery of oil in Nasarawa State and said it was set to drill the first foot of an oil well in the Northern state.
It said the discovery was in continuation of its oil exploration activities in the country’s inland basins.
The NNPC is also prospecting for crude oil in more locations across the north, after discovering the commodity in Bauchi and Gombe states.
The NNPC was taking coordinated steps for more frontier exploration in the region, as part of measures to shore up the country’s oil output and reserves.
The company had disclosed this in a document on the frontier exploration services activities of the NNPC from 2020 to 2022, as outlined some prospective states where oil was expected to be discovered to include Niger, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Gombe.
However, Nigeria is toiling to find buyers for its crude oil as strikes in the French refining sector and seasonal maintenance at European plants cut into the OPEC producer’s sales.
There are reports that about 25 shipments of the country’s crude for April loading were still searching for buyers, according to four traders specialising in the West African market. Each cargo was reported to contain about a million barrels of crude.
According to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, France, one of Nigeria’s biggest buyers, took an average of 110,000 barrels daily of Nigeria’s oil over the past year.
However, demand has shrivelled this month, with France’s overall crude imports dropping by half in March as the nationwide dispute over pension reforms escalated.
Bloomberg also reports that European plants are also buying less crude because of seasonal maintenance adding to the impact of the strikes.
“The Nigerian backlog is a combination of higher freight costs, lower tanker availability specifically into Europe as well as lower overall demand for West Africa light sweet as crude from other regions is deluging markets,” said Viktor Katona, a lead crude analyst at Kpler