Nigeria is potentially losing 3000 megawatts of electricity, and about 300,000 jobs for flaring about 324 billion standard cubic feet of gas which could also cause the nation over $1 billion in revenue, according to the latest data (2017) from the Committee on Gas Expanded Programme.
If the gas is well harnessed about 600,000 tons of Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) could be produced to service six million households with clean energy.
The 2017 data made available to Businessday, according to the Committee on Gas Expanded Programme, also indicated that the country was losing over $500 million as emission credit value.
According to the chairman, National Gas Expansion Program (NGEP), Mohammed Ibrahim, about two to three Liquefied Natural Gas projects could be put up on account of the volume that is being flared.
Already, a consortium of banks has mobilised about N1 trillion to support the activities of the committee which is the promoter of Autogas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas( LPG), Compressed Natural Gas ( CNG), and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in the country as an alternative fuel to petrol.
Read also: Zeeco, Arbel Energy partner to reduce environmental impact of gas flaring in Nigeria
The focus of the programme is to ensure the maximum utilisation of gas within the domestic economy as an alternative to Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol.
The contribution is the outcome of the meeting the bankers had with the committee on the programme after being made to see the viability of the project.
Ibrahim said efforts by his team have started yielding fruits with a company like Eleme Petrochemical Company in Port Harcourt now producing polymer raisin that can be used to produce a gas cylinder.
He said as the programme progresses, the country would have multi-fuel stations for dispensing Compressed Natural Gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Liquefied Natural Gas, and electric charging points.
He disclosed that the committee has stopped the importation of cylinders into the country and encouraged local companies to start the production, stating that the committee worked to get the raw material locally from Eleme Petrochemicals in order to create jobs for Nigerians.
“If we allowed importation some local companies would have shot down. There was an offer for 50 million polymer cylinders to be dumped into the country, but we refused. There is also an offer from South Africa which we turned down. Let our companies in this country manufacture the cylinders”, he said.
The committee, he stated, declined the offer by Indorama to produce Polymer Raisin because it wants other companies to produce the cylinders to avoid monopoly.
By March 2021 there would be about a million polymer cylinders in the market,” he said.
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