Senate Pushes For End To Gas Flaring, Says Nigeria Lost $197 Billion In Two Years

Nigeria Senate on Wednesday urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to intensify effort on diversification of crude oil to natural gas production with a view to ending gas flaring by the year 2020.

In an adopted motion at plenary on the need to monitor the Nigerian Flare Commercialization Programme towards gas flaring, which was sponsored by Senator Betty Apiafi and co-sponsored by 47 other Senators, she said the burning of natural gas was injurious to humanity as well as it is a loss of revenue.

She said, the data obtained from the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership in 2001 indicated that, “Nigeria was the sixth largest gas flaring country across the world, and the second largest in Africa after Algeria.”

The Rivers lawmaker pointed out that laws against gas flaring have been put in place since 1984, saying burning gas in Nigeria remains illegal.

“Section 3(1) of the Associated Gas Re-injection Act, cap A25 LFN 2004 states that no company engaged in the production of oil and gas shall after January 1, 1984 flare gas produced in association with or without the permission in writing of the Minister.

“In 2018 alone, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), oil and gas industry operating in the country flared a total of 215.9 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas amounting to a revenue loss of over $197 billion.

The lawmaker added that Nigeria’s reserve was about three times the value of her crude oil reserves with a value of 202 trillion cubic feet.

Following her presentation, the senate resolved to set up an Ad-Hoc Committee with the mandate to monitor the implementation of the NGFCP.

The senate also resolved to review and recommend upwards penalty for non-compliance in line with global best practices.