NNPC explains move to further explore hydrocarbons in frontier basins

• Admits redeploying 12 officials of NPDC, mourns worker killed in road crash

Though the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has failed to announce result of its exploratory activities at the Gongola Basin, it yesterday disclosed moves to invest more in searching for hydrocarbons in the frontier basins and the ultra-deep water basin in the Niger Delta.
Group Managing Director (GMD) of the corporation, Mele Kyari, disclosed that significant progress had been made in the ongoing exploration of inland basins but failed to comment on the result of the search.

Kyari, who spoke with the leadership of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Abuja, said the NNPC would invest more efforts and resources in the search for hydrocarbons in the frontier basins and the ultra-deep water basin in the Niger Delta to grow the nation’s reserve base. He said that his management’s focus on Transparency and Accountability with Performance Excellence (TAPE) was geared towards transforming the NNPC into a global company of distinction.

Meanwhile, the corporation has admitted that 12 management members of staff of its flagship upstream subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), had been redeployed.

According to Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, NNPC, Mr. Roland Ewubare, the move aimed at repositioning the company to meet its production and reserve targets. However, the NNPC headquarters in Abuja was thrown into mourning yesterday as members of staff grieved over the sudden death of their colleague, Dawari Aye, in a ghastly car crash.

Aye, a father of three, who hails from Bayelsa State, died at about 10:00 p.m. on Monday night when his Toyota Camry car with registration number RBC 538 SF ran into a slow moving truck on the Kubwa expressway.

Sources informed The Guardian that the late Aye was preparing to travel for the burial of his mother-in-law who died recently. A source also said that Aye was yet to settle at his Brick Estate residence after closing from work on the fateful day when he received a phone call. He immediately left in his car but crashed about four kilometres away from his house.