In the last five years, Nigeria has flared 1,252 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas to the atmosphere, posing health risks and lighting up global warming.
Analysis of the NNPC’s Monthly Oil & Gas Reports between 2016 and 2020 showed flared gas dropped to the lowest in 2020. According to the reports, Nigeria reduced its flared gas volumes from 245 billion cubic feet in 2016 to 193.1 billion cubic feet last year. Within the period, it recorded huge burnt gas into the atmosphere in 2018, contributing 287.58 billion cubic feet to the global gas emissions.
Gas flaring in Nigeria by NNPC – 2016 – 2020
Per National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) estimates, the figure is much more than what the NNPC reported. In 2020 alone, NOSDRA estimated that flared gas costs the country $708 million in unpaid fines and 35.3 gigawatt-hours of potential power generation.
Impact of Gas flaring
Flaring is the act of burning off excess natural gas produced as a byproduct of oil extraction. If there is no infrastructure to put this excess to productive use, it is burnt. It aggravates the effects of climate change and impacts the environment through carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, black carbon, and other pollutants.
Gas flaring also wastes valuable energy resources that could be used to advance the sustainable development of the producing countries. A Dataphyte estimate, shows that the flared gas in Nigeria, if conserved, could increase electricity generation in Nigeria by 20 per cent, helping to achieve the country’s electricity generation target by 2030.
According to a recent World Bank report, the practice results in a range of pollutants released into the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, methane, and black carbon (soot). “The methane emissions from gas flaring contribute significantly to global warming in short to medium term because methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide on a 20-year basis,” the report said.
Also, Satellite data compiled by the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), put Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela, and Nigeria as the top seven gas flaring sites in the world.
“Awareness of gas flaring as a critical climate and resource management issue is greater than ever before. Almost 80 governments and oil companies have committed to Zero Routine Flaring within the next decade and some are also joining our global partnership, which is a very positive development”, said Zubin Bamji, Program Manager of the World Bank’s GGFR Partnership Trust Fund.
“Gas flaring reduction projects require significant investment and take several years to produce results. In the lead-up to the next UN Climate Change conference in Glasgow, we continue to call upon oil-producing country governments and companies to place gas flaring reduction at the center of their climate action plans. To save the world from millions of tons of emissions a year, this 160-year-old industry practice must now come to an end”, he further remarked.
In the report, Demetrios Papathanasiou, Global Director for the Energy and Extractives Global Practice at the World Bank, urged stakeholders to forge ahead with plans to dramatically reduce the direct emissions of the oil and gas sector, including from gas flaring.
Significant progress not enough to end gas flaring
Last year, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry recorded significant progress, with the oil sector recording a 20 per cent drop in gas flaring volume.
Further analysis of the monthly report of Nigeria’s state-owned oil firm showed that the total gas supply for the period January 2020 to December 2020 stood at 2967.4 BCF, out of which 193.13 BCF were flared. Others were utilised for commercialisation for the domestic and export market, re-injection and fuel gas. The table below provides monthly details of the gas flared for the period January 2020 to December 2020.
Despite reducing the volume of its flared gas, Nigeria is still one of the top seven gas flaring countries. Last month, the World Bank said the country contributed to the global gas flaring volume of 142 billion cubic meters in 2020.
Gas flaring and 2030 global commitments
Nigeria remains a stakeholder in oil-producing in Africa, and it needs to find better infrastructure to accommodate excess natural gas through conversion and utilisation. One way is to convert excessive gas to generate electricity. The action will increase government revenue and help meet Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and pledge of Zero Routine Flaring – all by 2030.
Goal 13 infographic, source: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/
Goal 13 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for the broadest possible “international cooperation aimed at accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions and addressing adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change”.
A report on progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations alerted the global community that it is far off track to meet either the 1.5 or 2°C targets called for in the Paris Agreement despite COVID-19 impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
The intergovernmental organisation advised governments and businesses to accelerate the transitions needed to lower greenhouse gas emissions and make rooms for climate -resilient economies and societies.
On the other hand, Nigeria and the NNPC have committed to the “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative of the World Bank. They are part of governments and companies that recognise gas flaring as unsustainable from resource management and environmental perspective. They agreed to co-operate to eliminate routine flaring no later than 2030.
This story was produced under the NAREP Media Oil and Gas 2021 fellowship of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism