Nigeria’s oil reserves hit 35 billion barrels

Nigeria’s crude oil reserves reached 35 billion barrels by the end of March 2005, an increase of 40 percent compared with 25 billion barrels recorded in 1999, local newspaper The Punch reported Tuesday.

Godwin Billy Agha, deputy director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, was quoted as saying that the significant growth in reserves was achieved “through rigorous exploitation, especially in the deep offshore.”

He added that “the Niger Delta Basin alone at present holds 30 billion barrels of reserves, while the deep-offshore holds five billion barrels.”