Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, has faulted the claims by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, that routine gas flaring in the country’s oil and gas operations will end by 2030.
The Chief Executive Officer of NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, at the just concluded 8th Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, had said several initiatives were ongoing in the sector to ensure all gas flares were put out in the next years.
Komolafe said the national drive was to achieve the zero-flare target by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2060, stressing that NUPRC was effectively spearheading the drive to attain the target.
But in a swift reaction, YEAC-Nigeria has described the statement by the NUPRC’s Executive Director as funny, saying that there was nothing on the ground to show that gas flaring can even end by 2040.
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said the the records and history of setting gas flaring goal post by regulators and shifting same, was not new to those who are familiar with the situation over the past decades.
“YEAC-Nigeria dismisses the claim by NUPRC that gas flaring in Nigeria will end by 2030 with a wave of the hand, the statement is funny and the NUPRC’s Executive Director is a clown for making such conclusion when there is nothing on the ground to show that gas flaring can even end by 2040.
“There is nothing on the ground to show that routine gas flaring in the oil and gas industry will end by 2030, approximately five years from now.
“NUPRC should focus their attention on better things and forget about comments like these which is not backed by any atom of preparations and infrastructural development to commercialize flared gas by the year 2030, as the magic is not possible and only time will tell.”
