Professor Nuhu George Obaje is the Director, Centre for Applied Sciences and Technology Research (CASTER) at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Niger State. He spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday about the prospects of oil and gas in the Bida and Sokoto basins and the university’s smokeless coal initiative.
How do you see the federal government’s initiative to look for oil in other sedimentary basins?
To us, it is a welcome development. The other sedimentary basins outside the Niger Delta include the Chad Basin, Bida Basin and then we have the Anambra and Sokoto basins as well as the Benue trough. So we need to appreciate Mr. President because the policy is a good one as Nigeria will continue to need oil even as we try to diversify the economy and allow other sectors to play their roles; oil and gas will continue to dominate the primary source of energy in many years to come.
Before the NNPC intervention, what have you been able to do as regards the Bida basin?
We are moving into the Bida basin because the NNPC has invited us based on what we have been doing. They saw the work we are doing at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) on the Bida and Sokoto basins. We have collected data, mapped the basins, evaluated the potentials and prospects of the basins. We have done geological, geochemical and geophysical studies at the preliminary level and these have shown us possible areas where exploration activities can be concentrated.
Seismic data acquisition is a capital intensive activity, so we leave that to the NNPC but again the NNPC saw some of these works and invited IBBU to be a partner in the exploration of the basins, particularly with respect to detailed geological mapping and identifying the potential petroleum system elements. Because of this partnership, we will not be able to divulge further information and data as regard our works.
But Nigerians would want to know what these prospects are; what are the possibilities of oil and gas deposit in these basins?
In the oil and gas industry, there is no existing technology to say I’m seeing oil in so and so places or this is the quantity until you drill. What we do in our research is to put the elements together scientifically; what we normally call petroleum system elements. And when you put these together you now know whether there is a source-rock, a reservoir, a seal, a trap and whether there have been expulsion and migration and in what quantum and magnitude. In the Bida basin, there is high volume of source-rock within the Kudu Shale in the Northern Bida Sub-basin and within the Ahoko Shale in the Southern (Lokoja) Bida sub-basin. We have passed our data to the NNPC and they have also given their own to us and we are working on them together.
What exactly is the pact with the NNPC in this regard?
Every research we do must have impact on the society, in doing this, NNPC has realized that what we are doing is good for partnership, and when we partner, we share the work, we will generate results for them. So NNPC in a way has a substation at IBBU in this project and we are partners committed to the one goal of finding more oil and gas for Nigeria.
Are you committed to only the Bida basin or you’re partnering in other locations?
Our partnership with the NNPC covers Bida and Sokoto basins because we have been working in both basins but there is the possibility of working in other locations that the NNPC has interest in later. We will also be working with other institutions located around the basins. I am only talking now from the technical point of view. My Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammad Nasir Maiturare, is working assiduously to ensure that we deliver on the mandates by working closely with other institutions and only he can speak further on the collaboration.
We have been working on the inland basins for many years. The problem is that there is too much politics and sentiments, and the politics is that because of the interest in the Bida, Sokoto and other basins in the North, some people are saying that resources are being spent to discover oil “by force” in the region. But the effort is not just about the North.
I know a Professor of Geology that came out to say there is no oil in Bida and Sokoto basins but he had no empirical data to support his claim. We are here generating data but someone who has never worked on the basins is saying there is no oil when he has never mapped, never carried a sample, never analyzed any sample or data on these basins. This is the sentiment I’m talking about; it is not about Northern Nigeria wanting to find oil at all cost; oil can be found anywhere.
When these oils come on stream, the increase in reserve will be to the benefit of all Nigerians, North and South. What we have been doing; we have been publishing in reputable international journals so that they can be technically audited and peer-reviewed and we can get feedback.
And most people think oil must be in the delta. About a 100 million years ago the areas within the Bida basin, Benue trough, Sokoto basin and Chad basin were covered by sea (ocean); the organic matter there-in generated oil and in the course of time the seas have regressed and we now have dry lands.
Saudi Arabia is in the desert and today the largest amount of oil deposit in the world is in the desert; the whole of the Middle East is on oil, the area is not in the delta but some millions of years ago it was submerged by oceans.
Every analysis carried out shows that hydrocarbons in the inland basins would be overwhelmingly gas, but that is the exact situation in the Niger Delta. What we have in the Niger Delta is 75% gas and 25% oil. But as we all know, gas is the energy of the moment and the future, both for the environment and for industrialization.
So what you are saying is that there are prospects of oil and gas in these basins?
Like I said we use the term prospectivity in the industry and it is gratifying that government has moved in. We have done our own evaluation; given them our preliminary data and analysis as well as interpretations. And like I told you earlier, we have been able to build confidence about commercial availability of oil in these basins but we have to await further assessment and drilling by the NNPC and other stakeholders to confirm this.
But I can assure you that I can stick my neck for it because in the Bida basin for instance we have already seen several oil seeps and that is the first sign to look out for in a basin under exploration; we have seen oil seeps at Muregi, at Daban, at a village near Lemu, at Gaba, at Ahoko and highly adsorbed oil on rocks drilled at Kudu and a few other places.
So these are things that build confidence in our research works but we have to wait for further work by us and the NNPC.
What is the duration of this partnership with the NNPC?
The partnership can last for as long as it can but my vice chancellor will speak more on that. Because even after you find the first commercial oil in the Bida and/or Sokoto basin, or Benue or Chad basin, exploration works will continue with upgraded technology to find more, just like we have in the Niger Delta and from now until then and thereafter we are there to work together with the government (NNPC, DPR) and investors.
And in many cases, what is not commercial to you may be commercial to me depending on existing infrastructure (pipelines, storage facilities, flow stations, pump stations), cost of operations, product usability, market, etc.
Apart from hydrocarbon which other areas are you researching in?
On our other research projects, we are committed to finding more energy for Nigeria because without energy there is hardly going to be any appreciable development, especially industrialization. Most industries folded up in Nigeria because we have problem with power but we have large volume of energy sources in the country.
Apart from oil and gas we have large amounts of solar but we are into coal and biogas right now. We are working on a project to use coal to generate electricity. We are doing what we call clean-coal technology development at IBBU in which we identified the negative materials in the coal and we are working on how we can remove them.
We have made significant progress in the smokeless coal initiative so that domestic cooking can be done using coal and the attendant smoke with the health hazards will not be there. We are also working to see that these coals can be used to generate power. So that is another work we are doing. Using smokeless coals will also greatly mitigate deforestation.
How far have you gone with the initiative?
We have gone about 80 to 90 percent. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) is supporting us with some good amount of funds. We have just submitted our findings to TETFUND. We are just waiting for the next stage where we can get funds to buy machines to turn these coals into pellets and to package them in a pilot production for the university and surrounding communities to start using smokeless coal fuel for domestic cooking and other minor energy requirements.
Ancient forests that died about 100 million years ago are deposited in sedimentary rocks as coals, today we need to preserve our forests; we can use these ancient forests to preserve our present forests. There is a big problem with deforestation. People are cutting down the trees; we have to reduce the amount of charcoal people are using. Deforestation has serious negative climate change impacts.
How soon are we expecting results?
Like I said, we have gone far, we are waiting for the last stage. If we hear from TETFUND today, I can assure you that in the next three or two months, we will have smokeless coal pellets all over the place for people to use.
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