NNPC’s Kyari Visits Defence Chief, Seeks Military Support To Resume Oil Exploration In Chad Basin

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Tuesday, said it was ready to resume full-scale oil exploration in the Chad Basin, Gongola and Benue Trough. 

The NNPC said it will need the Nigerian military to protect its workers and equipment to be able to fully operate in these regions. 

The Group Managing Director of the corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, stated this during his  courtesy visit to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Gabriel Olonisakin, at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Abuja, on Tuesday. 

Kyari, according to a statement by NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, was accomplished by top management of the Corporation during the visit. 

“I am visiting the Chief of Defence Staff as my first port of call following my appointment to seek for the support of the Armed Forces to help the NNPC in re-entering the Chad Basin, Gongola and Benue Trough to enable us carry out our mandate for national development. Your support in terms of providing full security for staff and equipment is critical to us,” said the NNPC GMD. 

Kyari added that the corporation equally required the military to intensify efforts in the protection of NNPC’s pipelines and Right of Way (RoW) across the nook and cranny of Nigeria.

He stated that the NNPC was seriously challenged due to the nefarious activities of pipeline vandals, petroleum products thieves and other economic saboteurs that breach the operations of the corporation in various parts of the country.

In his remarks, CDS Olonisakin congratulated the GMD on his appointment and assured him of the readiness of the military to collaborate with the NNPC in safeguarding Nigeria’s national economic infrastructures in the area of oil and gas.

“It is imperative for the Armed Forces and the NNPC to collaborate and synergize for the benefit of the country going by their various strategic roles to the nation. The Armed Forces operations, code named: Operation AWATSE and Operations DELTA SAFE, along with other operations, were geared towards protecting pipelines and various oil and gas facilities,” said the CDS . 

Olonisakin further assured Kyari that the military will sustain its Operation AWATSE, which was launched to tackle the menace of pipeline vandalism in South West Nigeria, amongst other criminal activities,  adding that the military will also intensify its ongoing Operation DELTA SAFE in the South-South region of the country.