The Senate on Wednesday tasked the federal government to take affirmative action and put in place stringent penalties to achieve the launched gas flare commercialisation by the year 2020.
, launched in 2016 by the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has not been implemented due to lack of enforcement of the laws in previous years.
With the launching, the FG had projected deadline of 2020 to end routine gas flaring.
Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas that is associated with the extraction of crude oil, and according to the World Bank data on Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership 2018, Nigeria is the sixth largest gas flaring country globally and the second largest in Africa after Algeria.
The gas flaring programme was initiated to provide a commercial approach for the elimination of routine gas flares by the year 2020.
By the NNPC strategy, the programme was to achieve social, environmental and economic impacts in the Niger Delta region by mobilizing private sector capital towards gas flare capture projects.
Unfortunately, the programme has not taken off and it seems there is lack of commitment to effect the implementation.
Consequently, Senate has resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to look into the matter and quickly monitor the implementation of the programme.
Specifically, the Upper Chamber want the federal government to urgently make sure penalty for non-compliance confirms with best practices in order to diversify from crude oil to natural gas production.
The decision by the Senate followed a motion Senator Apiafi Betty Jocelyn (Rivers West) on the need to monitor the Nigerian Flare Commercialization Programme towards ending Gas flaring by 2020.
Apiafa argued that Natural Gas is a fossil natural resource and that it is a versatile, clean-buming, and efficient hydrocarbon that is used in a wide variety of applications when harnessed properly such as a source of energy for heating, cooking, electricity generation, fuel for vehicles and as a chemical feedstock in the manufacture of commercially important organic chemicals.
The lawmakers noted that in the Niger Delta region, gas flared have been corroded by the composition of the rain that falls as a result of flaring and that in most cases, there is no vegetation in the acres surrounding the flare due partly to the tremendous heat that is produced and the acid nature of the soil.
This, she argued have resulted in crops having stunted growth. She said the health implications on humans include neurological, reproductive and developmental effects leading to increased cases of deformities in children, lung damage, skin problems and cancer among other.
