The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has begun oil exploration in eight of the 25 local government areas in Niger State, with Nigeria’s reserves expected to increase to 40 billion barrels by 2023, according to  Leadership newspaper .

After an in-depth geological and geochemical studies carried out by the NNPC, the results indicated strong hydrocarbon-bearing in the Bida and Sokoto basin.

Abubakar Sani Bello, Executive Governor of Niger State, said on Twitter, “Efforts in the search of the availability of commercial quantity of hydrocarbon have heightened in the Frontier Basins as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is set to acquire 600 km of Two-Dimensional (2D) data to evaluate the potentials of Bida and Sokoto Basins.” 

The local government areas where exploration activities will commence are Mokwa, Lavun, Gbako, Bida, Katcha, Agaie, Edati and Lapai. 

Significant progress has been made regarding exploration of inland basins, which has led Nigeria to set the target of increasing the nation’s reserves to 40 billion by 2023.