The Federal Government has lost an estimated N843 billion through gas flaring from January 2022 to August 2023. According to the latest report from NOSDRA on oil and gas flare data, the total amount of gas flared from January to August last year was approximately N847 billion.
The report also showed that the amount of gas flared during the first 8 months of the current year was significantly higher than the amount flared in the same period of 2022.
The gas flared during the same period had the potential to generate 17,100 Gigawatt (Gw) of electricity, but it also released 9.1 Mt CO2 into the atmosphere as a result of the flaring.
The NOSDRA reported that from January to August 2022, Oil and Gas companies operating in Nigeria flared a total of 147.1 Billion SCF (US$514.9 million), amounting to approximately N390 billion (using the current CBN exchange rate of US$7.5 per dollar).
The same period of 2023 saw a total of 171.1 Billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas flared, amounting to approximately US$599 million (N453 billion).
The Oil Spill Remediation Agency (OSA) reported that the companies were responsible for penalties amounting to $342m (about N251bn), but that a large portion of the penalties had never been collected by the federal government.
On the other hand, according to the Oil Spill Management Authority (OSMA), the oil companies were required to pay penalties amounting to around N223bn (about $294m) from January to August 2022.
NOSDRA also reported that the lost gas had a potential power generation capacity of 14,700 GWh, equivalent to about 7,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted during that period.
The Oil Spill Management Agency (OSMA) listed some of the companies that had been found to be responsible for the losses of gas as follows:
South Atlantic Petroleum, Shell Petroleum, Development Company, Chevron Nigeria, Mobil Oil, Nigeria Texaco, Elf Petroleum Nigeria, Addax Petroleum, Nigerian Petroleum, Development Company, Nigeria Agipoil, Texaco Overseas, Cromwell
The companies involved in the report are responsible for the flare of natural gas from the following oil mining leases: (04) (05) (11) (13) (14) (17) (18) (22) (28) (23) (24) (38) (40) (42) (43) (72) (49) (54) (90) (95) (67) (70) (104) (59) (99) (100) (101) (102) and Oil Prospecting Licenses (222) (316) and (306), and counting.
This report is a follow-up to the commitment made by the Government of Ghana (FG) in 2020 to achieve a zero gas flare rate by the year 2060, which is ten years later than the United Nations’ 2050 target.
