SOPURUCHI ONWUKA
As controversy continues to
trail the hand over of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of
Cameroon, the Franco-phone neighbor has activated moves to exploit
mineral potentials of the oil rich area.
Cameroon’s state-run
National Hydrocarbons Corporation, or SNH, said weekend it is in
talks with several drillings firms to start prospecting for oil in
the hydrocarbon-rich peninsula.
Cameroon is also searching
for oil in deeper wells of Douala Basin, the corporation
announced.
Until Nigeria ceded the
territory to Cameroon last year, there was no petroleum industry
activity in the semi-island even though it is believed to hold
huge hydrocarbon potential given it prospectivity of its
contiguous areas.
"We have to start
prospecting for oil in the Bakassi zone and the Bolongo zone.
These are supposed to be fertile zones," SNH Director of
Exploration Simon Tamfu told agency sources.
"Bidders are already coming
in to examine the data we have, and after that, we expect to sign
contracts with them," he said, without naming any companies
involved.
Bakassi, an area of some
1,000 square kilometers believed to contain oil and gas reserves,
has been the subject of a dispute for 15 years between Cameroon
and Nigeria.
Cameroon gained full
ownership of Bakassi in mid-August, but unrest continues, with
rebels attacking Cameroonian troops and their installations.
Officially, Cameroon
produces around 85,000 barrels of oil a day.
An official of SNH said
Sunday the company is also searching for oil from deeper wells
within the nation’s main oil-producing region of the Douala basin.
The Douala basin is located
in Cameroon’s south-western region on the Atlantic coast of the
Gulf of Guinea.
"In the Rio del Rey, where
we’re already producing oil, we’ve only been drilling from the
shallow surface. We’re working possibilities to start searching
deeper to see how much we can have from there," said SNH’s
Director of Exploration Simon Tamfu.Officially.
Cameroon produces around
85,000 barrels of oil a day.
Tamfu had earlier said his
company was prospecting to start drilling oil in the country’s
northern region, which is next to neighboring wells of the
Chad-Cameroon Pipeline.
It will be the first time
such operations will take place in Cameroon, as all its oil is
currently being drilled in the southern region.
