OpeOluwani Akintayo
21 December 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — President Muhammdu Buhari has still not given the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, approval to conduct a bid round for Nigeria’s gas flare sites.
According to data from the department, the country has 178 gas flare sites.
Information gathered has it that the processes to the bid round, which is in two stages will kick-off in the first quarter of next year.
A DPR report says the country currently flares about 11 percent of its gas production, bringing Nigeria to seventh in the world.
According to the report, if the government is able to harness gas currently being flared at the 118 flare locations across the Niger Delta, it would boast of over 3,000 MW of electricity in the nearest future.
The federal government has said it is committed to ending the practice of gas flaring in Nigeria, being party to the Paris Climate Change Agreement, and is 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 harnessed to stimulate economic growth, drive investments and provide jobs in oil producing communities and for Nigerians, the government had approved the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, NGFCP in 2016.
The Flare Gas Reduction (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulation 2018, is in favour of “The Qualified Applicant” for Flared Gas, where the qualified applicant is a company who wins in a bid round of flare gas sites.