NNPC reduces gas flaring by 26% in 10 years
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Monday, said it has succeeded in reducing gas flaring in the country by 26 percent in the last ten years.
According to the Corporation, the reduction was from 36 percent in 2006 to 10 percent in 2016.
Nigeria which used to be the second highest gas flaring nation, has now dropped to the seventh position.
Explaining the gas flare reduction policy, NNPC Chief Operating Officer, COO, Upstream, Bello Rabiu, said that as at 2006, Nigeria was flaring 2.5 billion standard cubic feet (scf) of gas, while consuming only 300mscf of gas per day.
Rabiu quoted a statement released by NNPC’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, on Monday, saying that the reduction in gas flaring was achieved through gas commercialisation built on the Gas Master Plan.
He also said that as part of efforts to preserve the environment, technology had helped the industry to record a drastic reduction in gas flaring.
“The Gas Master Plan was geared towards addressing four key critical issues of gas availability, infrastructure, commercialisation framework and gas affordability,” Rabiu said.
He further explained that though the implementation of the plan was driven by NNPC, it was sponsored by all the oil and gas companies operating in the country and that it has helped in addressing some of the issues that were confronting the gas sector.
The COO said that in order to ensure gas affordability, the plan recommends a lower price for gas to the power sector which is the most important segment while other sectors of industries and manufacturing get gas at a commercial rate.
This measure, according to him, was to ensure that gas producers get value for the gas they produce for sale.
Speaking on other move by the Federal Government to end gas flaring in the country, Rabiu said government had designed a National Gas Policy which seeks, among other things, to end gas flaring by 2020.
According to him, the National Gas Policy had been circulated to all operators to guide them on the direction of the Federal Government with regard to how it wants the nation’s abundant gas resources deployed.
Rabiu said that the Federal Government has provided a guarantee of payment to gas suppliers through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the World Bank three weeks ago as part of incentives to get the oil and gas companies to commercialise more of their gas.
“This is a very important step that the NNPC has been working on since 2008”, he said.
