Gas flaring gulps $780m in six months

Chinazor Megbolu |

Flaring of gas in the country’s oil and gas has cost Nigeria $780 million.

Data from the Nigerian Gas Flare Tracker website on Thursday indicated that the loss was from the first half of year 2020.

The website, which is an arm of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, showed that the volume of the wasted gas, put at 222.8 billion standard cubic feet (bscf), is worth N302.2 billion at the official rate of exchange of the U.S. dollar.

It also stated that onshore oil and gas sites accounted for 60.95 per cent with the rest 39.05 per cent coming from offshore operations, which if summed up to 11.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission.

The tracker also indicated on the escalating health hazards and environmental pollution in the Niger-Delta region.

It further stated that the loss is capable of generating 22,300 gigawatts hours (gwh) of electricity, adding that gas flared by onshore sites came to 135.8 bscf January through June just as the figure for their offshore counterparts stood totalled 87 bscf.

The website posited that for the unethical practice, the penalties payable by the culpable firms to the federal government was estimated at $445.7 million (N172.709 billion).

“Gas flared by onshore firms was worth $475.5 million (N184.256 billion) attracting a fine of $271.7 million (N105.284 billion).

” Put differently, it was equivalent to 7.2 million of CO2 emission that could be converted to 13,500 gwh.

“Offshore flared gas was estimated at $304.4 million (N117.955 billion) with a $174 million (N67.424 billion) penalty attached.

“Altogether, the CO2 emitted by them had the potential of producing 8,700 gwh of electricity,” the report said.