According to the official, Nigeria has 42.74 billion metric tonnes of untapped bitumen reserves.
According to Obadiah Nkom, Director-General of the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO), Nigeria spent 13 million dollars on Bitumen imports in 2020.
Mr Nkom stated this at a round table discussion on Thursday during the ongoing three-day Nigeria-Africa Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja.
According to him, Nigeria has 42.74 billion metric tonnes of untapped bitumen reserves.
Bitumen can be found in the states of Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers, and Bayelsa.
He stated that the global market for bitumen is currently worth 42 billion dollars, but that due to its high demand, the market could grow to 66 billion dollars by 2027.
“This indicates that the value of the bitumen market will rise by 2027; therefore, Nigeria should look into bitumen exploration, which will bring development to the country.”
“When Nigeria begins mineral exploration, it will save foreign exchange, which will benefit our economy.”
“At the moment, Nigeria is ranked sixth in the world in terms of bitumen deposits.”
“Bitumen is in high demand in Nigeria because it is primarily used for road construction.”
“Currently, Nigeria has over 160, 000 kilometers of roads that need to be tarred, with only 60,000 already tarred,” he said.
Dr Abdulrazaq Garba, Director-General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), also stated that the government had identified seven strategic minerals based on information available on them.
Coal, Iron Ore, Bitumen, Gold, Limestone, Lead/Zinc, and Barite are the seven minerals.
Mr Garba stated that the government had invested funds in generating Geoscience data for those minerals in order to provide investors with sufficient information about them.
“Basically, you will agree with me that the mining business is not intended for the government to investigate minerals, but in this particular climate, we need to take this information up to a level where the minerals will be appealing to investors.”
“We also have something called the Decision Support System” (DSS). This is a World Bank project, and the gist of it is that the government is attempting to ensure that all of the information that investors require to make mining investment decisions is available.”
Cyril Azobu, Partner/Mining Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Member of the Bitumen Steering Committee, stated that PwC was the government’s transaction advisor on the concession of bitumen to the right investors.
According to Mr Azobu, Nigeria has a high quality of untapped bitumen.
“Because bitumen is in high demand worldwide, Nigeria could serve as a hub for local supply of bitumen or asphalt for export in Sub-Saharan Africa to other countries.”
He stated that programs had been planned for the successful take for bitumen concession to the right investors, and that he hoped it would be completed by the end of the year.
On November 11, 2021, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development awarded a letter of award to PwC to act as its Transaction Advisor and Programme Manager for the concession of the bitumen block to potential investors.
The ministry, in collaboration with PwC, will hold a sensitization workshop and an investor conference soon.
The event will include a media launch as well as a technical working session, and it will assist the ministry in pitching the bitumen investment opportunity to potential local and foreign investors both in person and virtually.
The ministry stated that the concession would not fail in the same way that previous bitumen concessions in 2002 and 2005 were revoked due to concessionaire failure.
(NAN)
