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Nigeria lost over $850 million to gas flaring in 2015, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) confirmed on Sunday, adding that even though it is presently dwindling, the “scale of gas flaring is still worrisome’’.
Deputy Director, Head, Upstream, DPR, Mrs Pat Maseli also corroborated the revelation with statistics at the just concluded 10th Annual Sub-Saharan Africa Oil and Gas Conference in Houston, Texas, U.S.
Expatiating on this in Lagos, Chairman, Energy Corporate African, Mr Sonny Oputa the organiser of the conference affirmed Maseli’s view point that the development led to a loss of 3,500 megawatts of electricity generation and about 400 million dollars carbon credit value emission.
“55 million Barrels of Oil Equivalent (BOE) was lost and 25 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted.
“The country is recording decline, but the scale of gas flaring is still worrisome’’, indicated Maseli, noting that with almost 8 billion cubic meters of gas flared annually, according to satellite data, Nigeria had the seventh largest gas flaring in the world.
“At the same time, approximately 75 million Nigerians lack access to electricity.
“In recent years, Nigeria has shown significant progress by reducing gas flaring by about 2 billion cubic metres from 2012 to 2015,’’ she further indicated, maintaining that prior to now, there were no gas terms in place, but the department had recently developed policies on gas terms and utilisation.
“This was passed to operators for their input which will subsequently be sent to the National Assembly for its passage.
“The Gas Master Plan seeks to deliver gas to commercial sub sector for use as fuel, captive power and related end-use, to consolidate Nigeria’s position and market share in high value export markets.
“It will create regional hub for gas-based industries, including fertiliser, petrochemical and methanol.
“It will also transform the gas sector to a value-adding sector,’’ Maseli said.
On the breakdown of the 2008-2013 Domestic Gas Supply Obligation (DGSO), she said that compliance was at an abysmal 23 per cent; adding that in 2016, the DGSO was achieved at 38.18 per cent, while in 2017, it was 40 per cent.
Nigeria is the ninth largest gas producing nation in the world.
In the meantime, the stage appears set for a clash of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) with governors and lawmakers pushing the bill which seeks to remove the National Minimum Wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.
The NLC leadership yesterday threatened to mobilise Nigerians against governors and some National Assembly members.
NLC President Ayuba Wabba, who spoke with The Nation last night, accused some members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum of sponsoring such an anti-workers’ legislation.
The bill which scaled through the first reading before the House embarked on Easter recess, is set for second reading on the floor of the House where members will debate on it.
Wabba, who kicked against fresh moves to “strangulate workers”, who have been frustrated by the lingering socio-economic hardship, said labour would explore every legitimate legal means to protect workers. “We have done in the past and we are going to deplore it,” he said.
The Congress plans to mobilise its affiliates to campaign against all political office holders linked with anti-workers’ legislations and policies ahead of the 2018 and 2019 general elections.
Source: Maritime First