Anambra Basin is one of the energy-rich inland

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock They form when long-term subsidence ...

s in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. It is a nearly triangular shaped embayment covering about 3000 km² with a total sedimentary thickness of approximately 9 km. The Basin lying between 6°–7.8°N latitude and 6°40'–7°30'E longitude, is an area of agricultural and fisheries production. Fish species of genus ''

Clarias ''Clarias'' is a genus of catfishes (order (biology), order Catfish, Siluriformes) of the family (biology), family Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes. The name is derived from the Greek language, Greek ''chlaros'', which means lively, and is a ...

'' are common in the basin especially in the dry season.

Location

The Anambra Basin is situated west of the lower

Benue Trough The Benue Trough is a major geological structure underlying a large part of Nigeria and extending about 1,000 km northeast from the Bight of Benin to Lake Chad. It is part of the broader West and Central African Rift System. Location The ...

and is often considered the youngest formation of the Benue Trough. The basin is bounded to the south by the

Niger Delta Basin The Niger Delta Basin, also referred to as the Niger Delta province, is an extensional rift basin located in the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Guinea on the passive continental margin near the western coast of Nigeria with suspected or proven acc ...

hinge line. It extends north-westward into the Niger Valley, northward to the Jos Massif and north-eastward into

Lafia Lafia is a city in Nigeria's North Central (Nigeria), North Central region. It is the capital and largest city of Nasarawa State, with a population of 509,300 inhabitants as of the 2021 census. And it's the Headquarter of Lafia Emirate Council. ...

. The eastern and western limits of the basin are defined by the

Abakaliki Abakaliki is the capital city of Ebonyi State in southeastern Nigeria, located southeast of Enugu. The inhabitants are primarily members of the Igbo nation. It was the headquarters of the Ogoja province before the creation of the Southeast ...

Anticlinorium and

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

massif, respectively.

Energy resources

The basin harbours the largest deposit of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

and

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

in Nigeria. Coal mining in Nigeria started in

Enugu Enugu () verbally pronounced as "Enụgwụ" by the Igbo indigenes is a state in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north by the states of Benue and Kogi, Ebonyi State to the east and southeast, Abia State to the so ...

within the basin. Albert Kitson discovered coal in 1909 at the Udi Ridge, Enugu; turning the region into a strategic

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

business area. Some of the coal mines operated in Enugu included Ogbete, Ribadu, Onyeama, Okaba and Okpara. The Anambra Basin could be next to the

Niger Delta basin The Niger Delta Basin, also referred to as the Niger Delta province, is an extensional rift basin located in the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Guinea on the passive continental margin near the western coast of Nigeria with suspected or proven acc ...

in hydrocarbon potentials. In addition to coal, the basin holds an estimated gas potential in the region of 10 trillion cubic feet. The gas reserse is estimated with more than 1000 trillion cubic feet as it remains untapped The Ugwuoba gas fields near

Awka Awka () is the capital city of Anambra State, Nigeria. The city was declared capital on 21 August 1991, on the creation of a new Anambra state and Enugu state by bifurcation of the old Anambra State. The city of Enugu remained the capital of Enu ...

, and Igbariam gas fields near

Onitsha Onitsha ( or simply ''Ọ̀nị̀chà'') is a city on the eastern bank of the Niger River, in Anambra State, Nigeria. Onitsha along with various cities and towns in southern Anambra State, northern Imo State and neighboring Delta State on the we ...

- an economic hub in the region, contain some of the successfully explored gas wells in the basin. Some of the wells by Shell/BP in the basin include Igbariam-1 and Ajire-1. There are also Akukwa-1 and Akukwa-2 operated between 1938 – 1939 in Ugwuoba. Crude oil deposits have also been reported in some parts of Anambra Basin, with estimated 50 or more billion barrels in reserves.

References

{{Major African geological formations Sedimentary basins of Africa Geology of Nigeria