The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), has inaugurated a 12-member ‘Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme Team’ to steer the Federal Government’s initiative to end gas flaring by 2025.
Inaugurating the team in Abuja, its chief executive, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, said that monetising gas resources was a positive step towards guaranteeing energy security, especially in the global energy transition period.
Komolafe, in a statement on Sunday said, ‘‘gas flaring in the industry had continued to be a menace which needed to be eradicated because of its adverse effects on the environment and people.”
He said that the wasteful disposal of natural gas is not only fraught with serious health/environmental consequences, ‘‘but it is also a major resource waste and value erosion to the country.”
Komolafe said that was why the federal government declared the period 2021 to 2030 as the “Decade of Gas”, a period within which the nation must shift focus from oil-centred exploitation to gas driven industrial development.
“Even though the World Bank has set 2030 as the target year to end gas flaring, Nigeria has not only set a country deadline for 2025. President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment towards the Paris Agreement during the COP26 Leaders’ Summit to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2060,” he said.
Komolafe recalled that in 2016, the Federal Government initiated the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), to end flaring of natural gas by oil companies operating in the country.
He, however, said that the initiative was well-received by stakeholders and industry watchers, although unforeseen constraints truncated its execution.
Komlafe said, ‘‘as a nation, Nigeria must ensure that it harnessed all available gas resources for value creation.”
He announced that NUPRC was recommencing the process of issuing flare sites to technically competent companies, following a competitive bid process. ‘‘This process has become crucial in view of the policy direction of the Federal Government to ensure all gas resources are developed for National development,” he added.
Komolafe stated that the commission was carrying out a study in conjunction with external technical resources to identify suitable flare sites for the auction process.
