The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said Nigeria will not attain zero gas flaring but would in the nearest future reduce the volume of gas being flared, particularly when the necessary legislative framework is put in place.
?According to DPR, about 24 per cent of the nation’s gas was being flared annually. The department ruled out the possibility of the country achieving zero-gas flares, pointing out that no oil producing country can attain zero gas flare.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had a couple of years back disclosed that the volume of gas being flared was 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcf/d) and this amounts to an estimated $2.5 billion being lost yearly due to lack of infrastructure to harness gas. More so, fuels and gas being flared were said to have accounted for most of the emissions in Nigeria at 37 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
Worried by the environmental impact of gas flaring on the country, the federal government directed oil producing companies to shut down oil fields where gas being produced and flared was considerably more than the crude oil produced.