13 northern states meet over oil, gas exploration

From AKIN ALOFETEKUN, Minna



A meeting of 13 northern states, under the region’s sedimentary basin, is scheduled to hold in Minna, Niger State today as part of moves to kick-start oil and gas exploration in the Inland Basin States.
Niger State Governor and Chairman of Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF), Babangida Aliyu, is to declare the meeting, under the aegis of the Association of Petroleum Inland Basin States of Northern Nigeria (APIBONN), open.
A statement by Danladi Ndayebo, chief press secretary to Aliyu, indicated that the Niger State governor in his capacity as the chairman of the forum had invited his counterparts whose states fall within the region’s sedimentary basin to direct their relevant commissioners to attend a meeting of the association in Minna, to enable them brainstorm on the modalities and action plan that would kick-start and sustain oil and gas exploration  in the North.
The meeting, according to Ndayebo, would fashion out strategies to harness the resources in Sokoto Basin, Chad Basin, Bida Basin and Benue Trough, whose hydrocarbon contents are yet to be properly developed and estimated.
He said the forum was in support of the ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to explore oil in the sedimentary basin of northern Nigeria.
The Inland Basin States include Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Kogi, Kebbi, Niger and Sokoto states. Others are Zamfara, Kwara, Nasarawa, Taraba, Yobe and Plateau states.



 





 REF  http://sunnewsonline.com/new/cover/13-northern-states-meet-oil-gas-exploration/