How Ogun Oil Exploration Vision Began During My Tenure — Gbenga Daniel

Former governor of Ogun State, Senator Gbenga Daniel, on Sunday, explained how his administration between 2003 and 2011 began pushing for oil exploration status for the state.

Daniel who now represents Ogun East at the Senate dropped this hint against the reported visit of the Federal Government delegation on Friday toward starting oil exploration in the state.

Stakeholders in the oil industry, including the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, Managing Director, SHELL Petroleum Development Company Ltd, Mr. Osagie Okubor; Chief Executive, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, and the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd, Mr Mele Kyari, were in Ogun on Friday over plans by the Federal Government to start oil exploration in the state.

They were received by Governor Dapo Abiodun and his Deputy, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele.

Lokpobiri, who spoke at the governor’s office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said Ogun had always been part of the Dahomey Basin with the prospect of having huge deposits of hydrocarbon.

But the former governor in a statement, issued by his media office, congratulated Abiodun on the development.

According to the statement, Daniel noted that the declaration of the state as a frontier state for oil exploration was a fulfillment of the vision started by the establishment of the Gateway Oil and Gas Development Limited in 2003, by his administration.

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“The recognition of Ogun State oil production status by NNPCL is especially heart-warming as it signposts the fulfillment of the vision kickstarted by the establishment of the Gateway Oil and Gas Development Limited in 2003 by the Daniel Administration, with immense support from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“In pushing for the recognition of Ogun State as an oil-producing state, the Daniel administration undertook a three-dimensional seismic study of oil and other minerals deposits in the state.

“The seismic survey covered a vast stretch of the water body in Ode Omi in Ogun Waterside Local Government, all through the Laogo Island, Imobi, Itasin riverine areas in the Ijebu East Local Government and Tongeji Island in Ipokia Local Government.

“The study then sparked a $50 million investment pledge by PGS Exploration Nigeria Limited in April 2004. Also, a large deposit of phosphate was discovered around Olusosun in the Ifo Local Government Area which necessitated the citing of the Gateway Fertilizer Company at Olusosun.

“The Ogun State Agro-Cargo Airport in Iperu/Ilishan and the Kajola FTZ in Ifo were conceived to provide transport logistics hubs to support all these initiatives,” he said.

“In 2007, a formal Memorandum of Understanding on a multibillion-dollar Olokola Liquefied Natural Gas project between Ogun and Ondo State governments (joint owners of the Olokola Free Trade Zone) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, as it then was; Chevron, Shell and British Gas (who were the promoters of the project), was signed.

“The Olokola Free Trade Zone was also billed to host petro-allied establishments such as the Dangote Refinery (now relocated to Lagos).”