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After decades of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta, in the southeast, Nigeria is launching production sites in the northeast of the country. President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday (November 22nd) inaugurated oil and gas fields in Kolmani, between Gombe and Bauchi states. While oil has generated enormous profits in the country, the majority of Nigerians continue to live in poverty, especially in the oil delta, one of the most polluted areas in the world.
With our correspondent in Abuja, Moses Gomis
Chance of the calendar or desire to consolidate priority given to fossil fuels : History will remember that Nigeria officially drilled for oil and gas in the northeast of the country on November 22, 2022, i.e. two days following the end of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
A few months before the end of his second presidential term, Muhammadu Buhari relishes the discovery of this Kolmani oil and gas field as a personal victory. Because he is also the Minister of Hydrocarbons and he has succeeded in finding new resources outside the Niger Delta.
Straddling the states of Bauchi and Gombe, these oil reserves are currently estimated at 1 billion barrels and 500 million m3 of gas would also be exploitable. Experts make projections in tens of billions of barrels.
The bet now for Nigeria is to find the virtuous recipe to really associate the populations living on these oil and gas fields and avoid the monopolization of its new wealth by a minority of people. Either do not repeat the mistakes of decades of oil exploitation.
Because following 60 years of black gold production in Nigeria, the Niger Delta provides 80% of the revenue of the federal state budget. But this region is also one of the most polluted areas in the world.
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