Anambra state oil and gas development plan

Anambra state lies within the Anambra basin which is one of the energy rich inland sedimentary basins in Nigeria next only to the Niger Delta basin.

It holds a nearly triangular shaped embayment covering about 3,000 km2 with a total sedimentary thickness of about 9km. The basin harbours largest deposite of coal and lignite in Nigeria.

In addition to coal, the basin holds an estimated gas potential of 10 trillion cubic feet.

The igbariam gas field contains some of the successfully explored gas wells, alongside ugwuoba gas field in oji river Enugu state.

The wells successfully explored for gas by shell bp in the basin include the igbariam 1 and Ajire 1.

The basin holds reasonable crude oil in this basin is said to be part of Nigeria's strategic reserves.

In 2002, the federal government gave orient petroleum resources limited, the license to explore for oil in the Anambra basin.

The company partly owned by Anambra state government is licensed to explore for oil in it's two oil fields in aguleri opl 915 and opl 916, giving them the sole risk basis by the federal government.

The company currently has oil production capacity of 3,000 barrels per day which is expected to serve as feedstock.

So far, the oil production is still from marginal fields through the barges as opposed to pipelines and has therefore not attracted oil conglomerates.

With the maximum support of the Peter obi led government, orient petroleum resources limited in 2012 laid the foundation for a 55,000 barrels capacity per day refinery project and it was at this foundation laying ceremony that Anambra state was formally declared an oil producing state by the president good luck Jonathan led government.

In addition to being an oil producing state The geographical location of Anambra state next to two major oil producing states of Delta and Rivers means that apart from developing the petroleum resources in our state, we need to leverage on the endowments of our neighbouring states to advance investment in oil and gas industry.

As crude oil and refined fuels is gradually dropping in value and importance, it is imperative that we look at all the alternatives in our disposal.

We shall explore many options to see how we can tap into oil and gas economy and subsequent leverage on federal government declaration of Anambra state as oil producing for our growth and development.

The options available includes

1) engagement of orient petroleum group, board and management on how to reengineer and reposition the company. Ensuring that the refinery and petrochemical component of the company's operation are stimulated.

ensuring the company put more emphasis on oil and gas production and harness these to gain more investor confidence which will synergize the completion of the refinery.

2) with volume of gas resources within the Anambra state basin, we will source investors to invest in mini LNG facility which can serve the entire Anambra state as the cheapest means to ensure a stable gas supply network. Mini LNG has advantage of low investment cost as the security risk is lower and plant requires minimal maintenance costs.

3) creating enabling enabling environment for more investors to venture into the establishment of gas plants in Anambra state.

Gas gathering in orient upstream and downstream operations shall commence from early part of her operations to gathered gas into a gas plants from onward sales and distribution.

Facilitation of the licensing of investors in this area.

4) LDC (local gas distribution companies) we shall encourage investment in the distribution of gas using pipelines especially in closed environments like estates, serviced apartments, layouts. This is because of it's advantages of less energy, traffic and minimum pollution due to spillage.

We may tap into aba- Enugu - Gboko pipeline when it becomes operational for gas supply.

We shall also support investments in other gas distribution chains including has refill stations, vehicles distribution to ensure gas availability in Anambra state at affordable cost.

This will help is reduce deforestation and promote energy conservation.

5) investment in petrochemical products : petrochemical products are everywhere and are integral to modern societies.

Their demands are high and will continue to increase. These are plastics, fertilizers, packaging, clothing, digital services, medical equipment, detergents, tires, solar panels, wind turbine blades, batteries, thermal insulations for building an electric vehicle part.

The importance of petrochemicals is continuing grow and it is indeed where our economy heavily depends on.

Demand for plastics alone has outpaced that of other bulk materials like (steel, aluminium and cement) and has nearly doubled since 2000. It will continue to grow.

6) oil services and component parts corridor : the onitsha - Atani - ogwu ikpele road in ogbaru local government area of Anambra state is a very important pathway to economic prosperity for Anambra state.

The road leads to the boundary between Anambra and Rivers State and across the River Niger to the oil rich Delta State.

Providing synergy for ndi Anambra to begin to diversify our business into oil services and components part and petrochemical products.

Dualization of the onitsha - ogwu ikpele road and in consultation with the federal and Rivers State government build a bridge to connect Anambra to Rivers State.

Subsequently industrial plots shall be mapped out for producing petrochemical products, production and sales of oil services and component parts in ogbaru free trade zone.

With increase in activities along the river Niger through ferry services, proposed inland water port in onitsha and dry Port between Atani and ozubulu.

these planned development projects will open up the ogbaru to international businesses and increase their contributions to the Economic development and prosperity in Anambra state.

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