The Federal Government has been urged to set up independent gas flares reporting and auditing protocols to determine the exact volume of gas flared by oil companies in the country.
Besides, the National Assembly should ensure that the volume of gas flared, attract the appropriate penalties and payment made a accordingly.
In a paper presented by Solomon Adeleye, an expert in the oil and gas industry, titled, ‘Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Strategy’, during a webinar, he noted that Nigeria has over 600 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas but regretted that instead of creating value in the gas chain, the nation flares most of its gas for several reasons
According to Adeleye, the country has about 179 gas flare sites which he said has disastrous impacts on the socio-economic growth, environmental and human impacts on the oil producing communities of the Niger Delta region.
He said that a percentage of the proceeds from the gas flare penalty should be used to support the communities impacted by the flares even as it called on the National Assembly to hasten the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
He equally urged government to pursue the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), which was initiated in Nigeria in 2016, as part of Federal Government’s deliberate policy, to bring gas flaring in the Niger Delta to a logical conclusion.
In a communiqué at the end of the programme, participants urged the Federal Government to commit to a three-year gas flare out plan, which would remain sacrosanct, to free the Niger Delta region from the hazards of environmental pollution as a result of gas flaring.
Organised by African Initiative for Transparency and Responsible Leadership for journalists and civil society organisations, oil and gas operators, it noted that Nigeria could make her oil and gas industry attractive to investors by plugging all the leakages in the sector.
‘’This would enable her generate more funds to divest from oil and also properly develop the oil producing communities. Nigeria’s projected work force in the next 10 years is about 122 million, which is nearly as high as her current total population,” the communiqué stated.
Participants noted that for Nigeria to reverse the fortunes of the oil and gas industry post COVID-19, the government should empower Department Petroleum Resources to install its own independent automated metering systems to enable government properly assess the claims made by its operating partners with respect to volumes of gas flare and penalties owed.
