The Battle Against Gas Flaring in Nigeria

The Nigerian Federal Government is not relenting in its bid to eradicate gas flaring in the nation’s oil producing regions come 2008. The Director, Institute of Petroleum Studies of the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Professor Joseph Ajienka, claims that Nigeria has lost about $5 billion to gas flaring in the last 20 years. It is important to state that gas flaring constitutes a major cause of environment pollution in the Niger-Delta region. As a result, there has been growing anger among local inhabitants of the Niger-Delta at the damage caused to their health and the ecosystem by oil production activities, especially gas flaring and crude oil spills. Professor Ajienka has also stated that nine exploration and production companies produced a total volume of 2,093.629 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas during their operations in the year 2005. Of this volume, a total of 812.333 billion standard cubic feet or 38.80% was flared. The remaining 61.20% was utilized. However, the volume of gas flared has drastically reduced in recent years due to aggressive ongoing gas utilization projects set up by the federal government across the country. The Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR-a subsidiary of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation-NNPC), Tony Chukwuke, has warned that the set date for the attainment of a zero-level in gas flaring will not be negotiated and any defaulting oil company would be severely dealt with. Part of punishments would be closure of oil installations among others. With a zero gas flaring level, Nigeria’s economy is set to witness an unprecedented growth and set Nigeria as a major gas supplier with the African region.