24% of Nigeria’s Gas Still Being Flared

Gas Flare

Nigeria currently flares about 24 percent of its gas, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said.
Since 2000, liquid fuels and gas flares were said to have accounted for most of the emissions from Nigeria at 37per cent and 40per cent respectively.

Minister of the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke had disclosed in 2010 that the volume of gas being flared was 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcf/d).

But at an interactive session with journalists at the weekend, the DPR Director, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, disclosed that as much as 24 per cent of Nigeria’s gas was being flared currently.

He ruled out the possibility of the country achieving zero-gas flares, pointing out that no oil producing country could attain zero gas flare.

THISDAY recently reported that the new December 2012 deadline fixed by the federal Government to end all forms of gas flaring in Nigeria might not be feasible as the country was still rated the second worst gas-flaring nation in the world.

An estimated $2.5billion was reportedly lost yearly due to lack of  infrastructure to harness the gas.
Worried about the environmental consequences of gas flares in the country, the Federal Government, a few years ago, directed oil producing companies to shut in oil fields where the gas being produced and flared was considerably more than the crude oil produced. The measure was said to have led to a drastic reduction in the volume of gas being flared from the 2.5bcf/d to about 1.5 bcf/d in 2010.

The House of Representatives in 2009 had adopted a report, setting December 31, 2012 as the new date for the achievement of zero gas flaring in the country.

The lawmakers resolved that any company that declared an incorrect flared gas volume should pay a penalty fee of $100,000, in addition to the payment of the difference of such declared volumes at the prevailing international gas market price.

The  December 2012  deadline to end all forms of gas flaring was fixed after the House considered the report of its committees on gas resources and justice on a bill for an Act to amend the Associated Gas Re-injection Act, No.99 of 1979 Cap.A25 laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The report of the committees followed submissions made by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC), Total Nigeria, Exxon Mobil Nigeria Unlimited, Chevron, Addax, National Agip Oil Company and Nigeria Civil Society Platform Against Gas Flaring at the public hearing held on March 10, 2009.  Based on the report, the January 1, 1984 deadline to end gas flaring was substituted with a new date of December 31, 2012.