Delineated bitumen blocks: FG, PwC to hand licenses to bid winners in November

By Chinwendu Obienyi

The Federal Government through the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development (MMSD), the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has announced that it will hand licenses to bid winners for the development of Nigeria’s delineated bitumen blocks in November 2022.

Speaking during a PwC and MMSD Concession event which held virtually in Lagos recently, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, noted that the nation ranks 6th in bitumen reserves estimated at 42 million barrels while adding that it is renewing efforts to stop the importation of bitumen into Nigeria.

While identifying the mining sector as one of the strategic industries for rapid growth and development, Adegbite said, “The FG through the MMSD intends to competitively tender delineated bitumen blocks in Nigeria to potential investors for the exploration, development and production of bitumen resources”.

Delivering a paper titled; Nigeria Bitumen: A Transition to Economic Diversification, the Director-General/CEO, NGSA, Dr. Abdulrazaq Garba, said that numerous exploration activities had been carried out across the entire Dahomey basin, with recalculated study area of 225 x 19 Km2 stretching from west of Ijebu in Ogun State to Siluko area at the fringes of the western Niger Delta, all within the Cretaceous Abeokuta group.