Nigeria is “on the verge of a significant oil find” in the Lake Chad area of the northeast, NNPC managing director Ibe Kachikwu was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the state oil company on Sunday.

Kachikwu, who is to be sworn in to President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet on Wednesday and is widely expected to become junior oil minister, also said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is projecting revenues of $20 billion in 2016.

Africa’s biggest economy has been hammered by the sharp drop in global oil prices, because it relies on crude exports for around 70 percent of government revenues.

“There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may be very close to being found now in Lake Chad,” Kachikwu was quoted as saying in a statement issued by NNPC spokesman Ohi Alegbe.