Nigeria’s gas fl aring declined by about 15 percent last year, according to the latest data from both the federal government and World Bank. The data indicated that flaring declined less sharply t h a n t h e Ni g e r i a’s o i l production, which suggests there’s a risk that fl aring might rise if oil output recovers and stabilises. Th e data from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources said that 771mn ft3/d – or 18 percent of the country’s 4.33bn ft3/d associated gas produced at 215 oilfi elds – was routinely fl ared in 2016. Accordingly, that equates to a 2016 fl aring total of 281.4bn ft³ (8bn m³), which is 15 percent less than the 330bn ft³ fl ared in 2015, according to the ministry.
Also, the World Bank data, released last week and based on satellite imaging rather than metering on the ground, also show a reduction in Nigeria’s flaring: to 7.315bn m³ in 2016 – even lower than the ministry’s fi gure – down 4.4 percent from 7.658bn m³ in 2015. Nigeria has reduced fl aring so consistently in recent years that it fell from fourth to seventh worst-fl aring nation between 2013 and 2016, notes the Bank. Last month, during the public hearing on Gas Flaring (Prohibition) Bill 2017, the Senate asserted that Nigeria accounts for over 40 per cent of the gas flared annually across Africa, which amounts to about $7 billion in waste. It also declared Nigeria was losing over $2.5 billion to gasfl aring annually and that the country also accounts for an estimated two billion standard cubic feet of fl ared gas, which amounts to about 19 per cent of gas fl ared globally.
Th e data comes handy even as the National Assembly works on the bill prohibiting gas fl aring is being seriously considered. It would be recalled that the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who was represented during the public hearing on the bill by Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ibn Bala Na’Allah, had said there was no reason the country should continue to fl are gas, considering its short and long term consequences. “The issue of gas-flaring in Nigeria is a matter of great national embarrassment. We have no reason to continue to fl are this precious resource God has endowed us with. Th is bill, therefore, seeks to make provisions for the prohibition of the flaring and venting of natural gas in any oil and gas production operation in Nigeria and for other matters connected therewith.
“Gas-flaring is as old as the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria. While it remains a global environmental malaise with attendant environmental consequences, we must move with the rest of the world to seriously put an end to it. Gas fl aring is not an inevitability. “While statistics may not be accurate, the quantity of gas fl ared in Nigeria exceeds over 40 per cent of the gas fl ared annually across Africa, which amounts to about $7 billion in waste, apart from economic waste being a consequence of gas fl aring.”
