More than 2 million people in the oil-rich Niger Delta face health risks, including cancer and lung damage, resulting from gas flaring; Nigeria is among the top 10 countries in gas flaring, accounting for 7.83 billion cubic meters of flared gas in 2019; To achieve zero gas flaring by 2030, the government needs to dialogue with stakeholders to ensure the implementation of its policies.
In the third week of February 2021, the Nigerian parliament reiterated commitment to ending gas flaring by 2025. Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, said the country would ensure strict compliance with the 2018 flare gas prevention of waste and pollution regulations and implementation of Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme.
Gas flaring involves eliminating unwanted by-products of numerous petroleum industrial processes including oil and gas recovery, petrochemical production process, landfill gas production, and wastewater treatment. However, this process poses health and environmental concerns, as it generates a significant amount of greenhouse gases that contribute to the overall burden of global warming.
Continuing, the Speaker of the House noted that the situation had deprived Nigeria of economic benefits of full utilisation of gas resources in the country.
Citing a PwC report at a public hearing, Hon. Nicholas Mutu (Bomadi/Patani Federal Constituency in Delta State), the chairman of the House Committee on Gas Resources Environment and Climate Change, confirmed that Nigeria loses more than $750 million annually flaring gas.
He noted that efforts to end gas flaring in Nigeria had not yielded the desired results while its damage to the environment continues.
According to a report by the International Climate Change Development Initiative Africa (ICCDI AFRICA), about 2 million people in the oil-rich Niger Delta are vulnerable to health issues, including cancer and lung damage, resulting from gas flaring.
And although Nigeria is a member of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and signatory to the Global Gas Flaring Partnership (GGFR) principles for global flare-out by 2030, there are growing concerns that the country is not committed to end gas flaring and contain its environmental impact.
The country has also endorsed the “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative of the World Bank. Yet, going by the prevailing situation, an end to gas flaring is not yet in sight.
Government’s Commitment to Gas flaring
Recognising the challenge that flaring poses, President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government launched the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme in 2016. The programme, committed to phase-out gas flaring by 2020, however, did not meet set expectations.
In October 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations, 2018, into law.
The Regulations provide a legal framework for the federal government’s gas flaring policies, including National Gas Policy, 2017. It also seeks to minimise the environmental and social impact caused by flaring natural gas, protect the environment, prevent waste of natural resources and create social and economic benefits from gas flare capture.
The regulations further address ownership and access to flare gas, the prohibition against gas flaring, payment, revocation and other penalties for continued flaring of natural gas by oil companies.
But despite the federal government’s policies and efforts to eliminate flaring of gas, the practice still continues.
Besides its environmental impact, the flaring and wastage of natural gas also contribute to inadequate power generation, which is a major challenge to Nigeria’s industrialisation.
What does the data say?
According to the latest World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker, Nigeria is among the top 10 countries in gas flaring. Specifically, it accounted for 7.83 billion cubic meters of flared gas in 2019, increasing from the 39 million cubic metres in the 2018 record (7.44 bn cubic meters).
Regrettably, data showed no gas flaring improvement in Nigeria between 2015 and 2019, despite government efforts. In the years under review, Nigeria had flared 37.89 billion cubic meters of gas, per World Bank estimates. The flared gas within the period is equivalent to 25% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s total annual gas consumption (150 billion cubic meters ).
Source: World Bank, NOAA, Colorado School of Mines, GGFR
Recent data from the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report September 2020 also indicated that 1,187.69 billion cubic feet out of a total gas supply of 3,029.83 BCF for the month were flare and fuel gas.
Looking Ahead
Towards the zero gas flaring by 2030 goal, the government needs to dialogue with stakeholders to ensure policy implementation.
But for Mr Shakirudeen Taiwo, an Economist with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), the current price mechanism for utilising gas is not profitable for oil-producing companies. According to Mr Taiwo, it makes it cheaper for oil firms to flare gas rather than to process it and supply it to generating companies.
Moreover, the gas flare commercialisation policy also did not give room for oil companies to benefit as critical stakeholders.
However, going with some successes recorded in eliminating oil subsidies and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) revisit, a similar gas policy reform may bring in appreciable gains for processing, local utilisation and export of gas. One of such incentives has been proposed by the Department of Petroleum Resources.
The Department Of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said it had developed a Gas Business Incentives and Support Programme (GBISP). Implementing such policy drive towards gas expansion and commercial usage would achieve two things for the country:
First, it will reduce or eliminate the volume of gas flaring drastically; this solves environmental and health hazards.
Secondly, it positions the country to meet Goal 7 of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The goal urges global leaders to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. This is particularly instructive for Nigeria, a country with a teeming population and high energy consumption, which battles with a huge energy access deficit.