Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says gas flare in the country has reduced significantly and stands at 19.54 per cent.
The development was attributed to increased utilisation of gas for power generation, export and industrial applications.
According to the latest edition Monthly Petroleum Information (MPI) from the NNPC obtained by News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket, 197.62 Billion Standard Cubic Feet (BSCF) of gas was produced while 159.02 BSCF was utilised.
The MPI was published on NNPC’s web portal on November 1, 2011.
A total of 38.60 BSCF about 19.5 per cent of total gas production were flared at the oil fields in onshore and offshore oil fields in Nigeria.
Also 83,768 Metric Tons of Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) was produced by both the Joint Venture and Production Sharing Companies in the Oil and Gas sector for the period under review.
Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) which operates a joint venture with NNPC accounted for 51 per cent (42,271 MT) while NNPC was credited with 49 per cent (41,047MT) of the volume.
According to the Petroleum statistics MPN flared 6.2 BSCF, about 20.7 per cent of its total associated gas.
Agip however flared the highest quantity of 9.14 BSCF, 23.36 per cent of its produced gas, while Total Exploration and Production flare the least gas volume of 2.04 BSCF, 9.57 per cent in the joint venture category.
Operations at Mobil’s 1.3 billion dollars sEast Area Natural Gas to Liquids projects has reduced the oil firm’s gas flare figures from about 40 per cent to 20 per cent and improved oil recovery at the Qua Iboe oil fields.
The upstream oil industry highlight also showed that total Crude Oil and Condensates produced during the period was 72.68 million barrels, averaging 2.34 million barrels per day by Joint Venture Companys, Production Sharing Contracts and Marginal Oil Field Operators.
In June 2011 ,global emissions from gas flaring alone were more than half the annual Certified Emissions Reductions (624 million tons) currently issued under the Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanisms.(data as of June 2011)
Gas flaring emissions in some oil-producing countries, represent about one third of their total CO2 emissions, according to Nigeria’s National Communication to the UNFCCC.