Page 12 - AfrOil Week 18 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

These unconventional reserves, which are sources of bitumen, as well as to encourage the
among the largest in the world, are spread out use of concrete in road construction.”
among Edo, Lagos, Ogun and Ondo states, he NBRRI, which is controlled by the Nigerian
said. government, has already studied proposals
Development of these resources could prove for using tar sands to facilitate road construc-
very lucrative, he commented. Nigeria could use tion, Onu added. “I am happy that NBRRI has
tar sands as feedstock for the production of up already carried out research and development
to 43 different kinds of petroleum products and efforts towards achieving fully paved roads
petrochemicals, he said. Additionally, it could using locally sourced bitumen. Its research
use unprocessed tar sands as a substitute for efforts covered materials sourcing, laboratory
bitumen in road-building projects, he stated. characterisation and field trials of these mate-
This would reduce the need to import bitumen, rials,” he said. “Though the trials are ongoing,
he noted. the interim results are promising, as bitumen
“Nigeria spends so much on the importa- samples collected locally are suitable for road
tion of bitumen for our roads,” he was quoted construction based on comparison with inter-
as saying by The Nation. “With [the] reduction national standards.”
in foreign exchange earnings for the nation due He did not say whether the institute had
to the drop in price of crude oil [on] the interna- drawn up any concrete plans for attracting
tional market, there is [a] need to find alternative investment to tar sands projects.. ™

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
SDX Energy launches first phase of drilling

programme in Morocco’s Gharb Basin

MOROCCO AIM-LISTED SDX Energy said earlier this week in the Gharb basin. The first of the three is OYF-
that it had launched a new drilling programme 3, which was spudded on April 30 and will target
in Morocco. the Guebbas reservoir at a depth of around 1,160
In a statement, SDX reported that it had metres.
entered into the first phase of its Moroccan drill- Two more first-phase wells are due to be sunk
ing programme for 2021. During this phase, it before the end of July, it added. One of these,
said, three appraisal and development wells will KSR-17, will target the Hoot reservoir at a depth
be drilled at the sites that the company operates of about 1,720 metres.

Many of South Sudan’s fields have been affected by oil spills (Image: Nilepet)

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 05•May•2021