The Senate on Thursday resolved to invite all relevant government agencies to brief it on the current status of the Nigerian Extended Continental Shelf Project.
The resolution followed a motion by Sen. George Sekibo (PDP-Rivers) and co-sponsored by 32 others on the urgent need to ascertain the status of the project.
Sekibo, had in his motion recalled that Nigeria in 2009 made a formal submission to the United Nation’s (UN) Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
He said that Nigeria had signified its intention for an extension of its continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
He explained that the extended continental shelf was a prolongation of the seabed and the subsoil of the marine area beyond the exclusive economic zone of a coastal state.
He said that Nigeria’s claim for an extension of her continental shelf from 200 to 350 nautical miles was achievable and had set up an inter-ministerial technical committee 2000.
He said that the committee was been coordinated by the National Boundary Commission and had been in the forefront of the project.
According to him, Nigeria had set up an office in the United Nation’s office with some Nigerian experts trained for that purpose and foreign consultants engaged for overseeing the day to day activities of the project.
According to him, the extended continental shelf, when achieved would be an additional seaward territory beyond the exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles.
This, he said would ensure the production of enough oil and gas prospecting infrastructure on offshore exploration and exploitation.
He said that Nigeria would harvest more oil and gas than what it was currently producing onshore.
The senator added that the offshore oil and gas production when fully established would drastically reduce militancy incursion on oil pipelines.
Following supportive contributions from other senators, the Senate resolved to;
“commend President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for setting up the high power presidential committee with the mandate to coordinate the activities of the extended continental.
“Urge the President not to relent in his efforts to fully support the project to its conclusion by defraying the outstanding financial commitment to the Nigerian office set up for the project at the UN.”
This, the senate noted would enable the foreign consultants concentrate effort to obtain a positive recommendation from the UN.
It also resolved to invite the UN resident team to brief the senate in four weeks on the status of Nigeria’s claim of her extended continental shelf project.
It further directed its committee on marine transport, when constituted, to diligently follow up activities of the Nigerian Extended Continental Shelf Project and regularly brief the senate. (NAN)
