OpeOluwani Akintayo
27 December 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — If Nigeria is able to harness gas currently being flared at 118 flare locations in the Niger Delta, it would boast of over 3,000 MW of additional electricity, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has said.
According to data obtained from the DPR, Nigeria currently has 178 gas flare sites and is flaring about 11 percent of its gas production, ranking the country seventh in the world gas flares chart.
The government has said it is committed to ending gas flaring by 2020, being party to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. The country is also a signatory to the Global Gas Flaring Partnership, GGFR, principles for global flare-out by 2030 whilst committing to a national flare-out target by the year 2020.
As a way to stimulate economic growth, drive investments and provide jobs in oil producing communities and for other Nigerians, the government had approved the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, NGFCP, in 2016.
The government plans to increasingly channel the flared gas into power generation to boost the level of electricity available in the national grid, which would be accessible for industries to operate optimally, in the process stimulating economic growth, driving investment and providing jobs.
