Mining agency bemoans $13m bitumen imports, calls for exploration to conserve FX

Obadiah Nkom, director-general, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO) has advised the federal government to develop the mineral sector and begin the exploration of bitumen to conserve foreign exchange (FX).

Nkom said this on Thursday at the ongoing Nigeria-Africa Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja.

He said although Nigeria is blessed with 42.74 billion metric tonnes of bitumen yet untapped, the country spent $13 million on bitumen importation in 2020.

Bitumen is a black viscous mixture of hydrocarbons obtained naturally or as a residue from petroleum distillation.

Used for road surfacing and roofing, bitumen is located in Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers, and Bayelsa.

According to Nkom, the global bitumen market was $42 billion and could increase to $66 billion by 2027 due to its high demand.

“This shows that there will be a rise in the value of the bitumen market by 2027; that is why Nigeria should look into bitumen exploration that will bring development to the country,” he said.

“Nigeria can conserve its foreign exchange when it starts exploration on the mineral and this will bring a boost to our economy.

“Currently,  Nigeria is ranked number six in the world in terms of its bitumen deposit.

“The demand for bitumen in Nigeria is high as it is mainly used for road construction. Currently, Nigeria has more than 160,000 kilometres of roads to be tared while only 60,000 are already tared.”

On his part, Abdulrazaq Garba, director-general, Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) said seven strategic minerals have been identified by the government.

He added that funds have been made available to generate geoscience data for those minerals so investors can have adequate knowledge about them.

“The seven minerals are coal, iron ore, bitumen, gold, limestone, lead/zinc, and barite,” Garba said.

“Basically, you will agree with me that the business of mining is not meant for the government to investigate minerals, but in this particular climate, we need to take this information up to a particular level whereby the minerals will be attractive to investors.

“Also, we have what we call the decision support system (DSS). This is a World Bank project. The essence of all these is that the government is trying to ensure that all the information that investors need to make decisions in investing in mining are available.”

Cyril Azobu, partner, mining leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and member, bitumen steering committee, said Nigeria is endowed with a good quality of untapped bitumen.

He said bitumen is a big demand all over the world, and Nigeria could serve as a hub for local supply of the mineral or asphalt for export in sub-Saharan to other countries.

Azobu added that programmes had been lined up for the successful take of bitumen concession to the right investors and that hopefully it will be concluded before the end of this year.