13 Northern Governors meet on oil and gas exploration

Governors from thirteen northern states which fall under the region’s sedimentary basin, are to meet Monday in Minna, Niger State, to kick start Oil and Gas exploration activities in the north’s Inland Basin States.

Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, who is also the chairman of the Northern State Governors Forum, will declare the meeting of the Association of Petroleum Inland Basin States of Northern Nigeria, open, according to his spokesperson, Danladi Ndayebo on Sunday.

Mr. Ndayebo said in a statement that Mr. Aliyu, in his capacity as the chairman of the forum, has invited his counterparts whose states fall within the region’s sedimentary basin to direct their relevant commissioners to attend the meeting to enable them brainstorm on the action plan that would kick start and sustain oil and gas exploration activities in the north.

According to the statement the meeting will “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”.

It also said the forum expressed support to the on-going efforts by the federal government to explore oil in the sedimentary basin of Northern Nigeria.

The Inland Basin States comprise of Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Kogi, kebbi, Niger and Sokoto states. Others are Zamfara, Kwara, Nasarawa, Taraba, Yobe and Plateau States.