Between January 2022 and August 2023, the Federal Government of Nigeria incurred a loss of approximately N843bn due to gas flaring, as per data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency.
In its recent gas flare report, NOSDRA revealed that from January to August 2022, oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria flared about 147.1 billion SCF of gas, which is valued at around $514.9m or N390bn (based on the current exchange rate of N757.5 to a dollar set by the Central Bank of Nigeria).
Furthermore, between January and August 2023, these companies flared approximately 171.1 billion standard cubic feet of gas, valued at about $599m or N453bn.
The total loss incurred between January and August in both years amounts to about N847bn. The report also highlighted that the volume of gas flared in the eight-month period of 2023 was 16.28% higher than in 2022.
The report further noted that the gas flared in the first eight months of 2023 could have generated 17,100 gigawatts/hour of electricity and emitted 9.1 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The companies responsible for this were liable for penalties amounting to $342m or about N251bn. However, the Federal Government did not collect a significant portion of these penalties.
For comparison, between January and August 2022, these oil firms were liable for penalties of about $294m or N223bn. The gas lost during this period had the potential to generate 14,700 GWh of electricity and was equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions of 7,800 tonnes.
Companies such as Shell Petroleum, Development Company, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, Chevron Nigeria, Mobil Oil, Elf Petroleum Nigeria, Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Addax Petroleum, Texaco Overseas (Nigeria), Cromwell and South Atlantic Petroleum were among those found guilty by NOSDRA.
These companies were found to have flared gas from various Oil Mining Leases and Oil Prospecting Licenses.
This report follows the Federal Government’s pledge to the United Nations in 2020 to achieve zero gas flare by 2060, a decade after the UN’s target year of 2050.
