The Senate on Thursday called on relevant government agencies to ascertain the current status of the Nigerian Extended Continental Shelf Project.
This followed a motion by Senator George Sekibo and 32 other senators at plenary on the urgent need to ascertain the status of the Nigerian Extended Continental Shelf Project.
Nigeria had in 2009 made a formal submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) seeking for an extension of her continental shelf.
Nigeria wanted the continental shelf to be beyond the 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea was measured.
Sekibo 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 had set up an inter-ministerial technical committee on the matter in 2000, coordinated by the National Boundary Commission.
Sekibo added that Nigeria also set up an office in the UN Headquarters with some Nigerian experts trained for that purpose and foreign consultants engaged for overseeing the day to day activities of the project.
The extended continental shelf, he said, when achieved would be an additional seaward territory beyond the exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles.
This, he maintained would ensure the production of enough oil and gas prospecting infrastructure on offshore exploration and exploitation.
Sekibo said Nigeria would harvest more oil and gas than what it was currently producing onshore.
He also explained that off-shore oil and gas production when fully established would drastically reduce militants incursion on oil pipelines.
Following supportive contributions from several senators, the senate commended President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for setting up high power presidential committee with the mandate to coordinate the activities of the extended continental.
It urged the president not to relent in his efforts to fully support the project to its conclusion by paying 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.
The Senate further directed its Committee on Marine Transport, when constituted, to diligently follow up activities of the Nigerian extended continental shelf project and regularly brief it.
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