As part of its efforts to reduce carbon emission, the Federal Government has shortlisted 139 oil and gas firms for its gas flaring commercialisation programme.
The firms, which were shortlisted by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, would be moving to the next stage of the gas flaring commercialisation programme, according to the commission’s Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe, in a statement on Tuesday.
He said out of the 300 companies that applied for the programme, 139 had been shortlisted “to proceed to the next stage of the programme.”
The gas commercialisation is aimed at cutting 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
Komolafe, however, did not mention the names of the successful firms and when the next stage of the programme would take place.
A presentation by Chairman, National Gas Expansion Programme, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, at the 2nd West Africa LPG Expo & NLPGA Summit held in Lagos, last June, had said gas flaring rate as of 2017 was about 247billion cubic feet, broken down to approximately 888MMSCF/D.
According to him, the NGEP seeks to mop up the 324BCF gas flare which if not flared, would have earned Nigeria about 54 million BOE , 2-3 LNG trains, 3000MW electricity generation, 600MT of LPG per year.
He likens this to six million households’ access to clean energy through LPG, generation of 300, 000 direct and indirect job, and trigger about 70-85 projects.
The flare, he said, resulted in 22 million tons of Co2 emission, loss of 500 million emission credit value, and a $1bn lost revenue for the country.
In July, the Federal Government said it would increase gas flaring penalties as the country raced towards achieving its commitment to the United Nations net zero goal by 2060.
In 2020, natural gas valued at $1.24bn was flared by oil companies. In October, the Federal Government fined oil and gas firms operating in the country the sum of $294m ( about N127bn) for gas flare. Statistics released by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency showed that the fine was for gas flared between January and August 2022.
The agency said a total of 147 billion standard cubic feet, SCF costing $515m, about N222bn was flared in the period under review. The quantity of gas flared in the period was 13 per cent lower than the 169 billion SCF of gas, valued at $591m (about N255bn) flared in the same period in 2021.
NOSDRSA also noted that the volume of gas flared in the period under review in 2022 was equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions of 8 million, which could have fetched the country about 15 gigawatts hours of electricity as a result of gas flare in 8 months.
