Oil and gas firms operating in the country flared a total of 215.9 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of natural gas amounting to a revenue loss of over N197billion last year, it was learnt on Wednesday.
This is even as the Senate directed its Standing Committees on Petroleum (Upstream) and Gas to monitor the implementation of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).
The Red Chamber also urged the Federal Government to review and recommend upwards penalty for non-compliance with flare out directives in line with global best practice.
It also urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to diversify from crude oil to natural gas production.
This revelation and resolutions followed a motion titled: “The need to monitor the Nigerian flare commercialisation programme towards ending Gas Flaring by 2020” sponsored by Senator representing Rivers West, Betty Apiafi.
Apiafi in her lead debate, she said gas flaring is the burning of natural gas that is associated with the extraction of crude oil adding that according to data obtained from the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership 2018, the country is the sixth largest gas flaring country globally and the second largest in Africa after Algeria.
She urged the Senate to also note that there are extant laws against the flaring of associated gas in the country “which action has indeed been illegal since 1984, though most of the laws are subjective.”
She said Section 3(1) of the Associated Gas Re-injection Act, 2004 states that “….no company engaged in the production of oil and gas shall after 1st January, 1984 flare gas produced in association with or without the permission in writing of the minister.
She urged the Senate to be concerned about the huge revenue loss due to gas flares in the country.
Apiafi said: “Flaring of associated natural gas is quite simply burning money. In 2018 alone, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), oil and gas firms operating in the country flared a total of 215.9 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of natural gas amounting to a revenue loss of over N197billion.
“Nigeria has the largest natural gas reserve in Africa and ninth largest in the world. Nigeria’s gas reserves are about three times the value of her crude oil reserves with a value of around 202 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of proven Natural gas reserves but despite having the largest gas reserves in Africa, only about 25per cent of those reserves are being produced or are under development today.”
She further expressed worry that In the Niger Delta region, gas flares have been wreaking havoc across communities since the early 1960s.
“Gas flaring results in the release of methane which is accompanied by other greenhouse gases that account for about 50per cent of all industrial emissions in the country and 30per cent of the total CO2 emissions which are harmful to humans, the economy and the environment.
