House Orders Oil Companies to Stop Gas Flaring

The House of Representatives on Wednesday called on the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other regulatory bodies saddled with the responsibilities of ending gas flaring in Nigeria to ensure strict compliance with the Flare Gas Prevention of Waste and Pollution Regulations 2018.

It also directed the concerned authorities to ensure the implementation of the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).

The House gave the directive following the adoption of a motion at the plenary on Wednesday on the need to end gas flaring in Nigeria moved by Hon. Ben Rolland Igbakpa.

He said the flaring of natural gas around the world contributes immensely to the scourge of climate change with over 350 million tons of emissions each year.

 

Igbakpa added that a recent United Nations summit on climate change held in New York on September 23, 2019, was pursuant to a consistent global action plan to end gas flaring by 2030, stressing that Nigeria is now a signatory to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), setting for itself a 2020 deadline to end gas flaring;

Igbakpa, however, expressed concern that routine flaring of associated gas still goes unabated in the Niger Delta area, thereby posing severe environmental and health hazards to the people in the area. 

The lawmaker noted that in the oil rich Niger Delta, pollution related to gas flaring has been linked to cancer of the lung and other neurological and reproductive illnesses.

Igbakpa stressed that gas flare is destroying crops and polluting the waters, and it has been estimated that two million people live within four kilometres (2.5 miles) of a gas flare in the Niger Delta region.

The lawmaker stressed that during the rainy season, the rain water is visibly black in Port Harcourt and Warri, noting that there were days of dark clouds hanging in the sky, which makes noon to look like evening time.

He added that aside the environmental and health risks posed by flaring of associated gas, gas flaring amounts to burning money and wasting of resources as the methane or the combusted type which is flared could be monetised as a revenue earner for Nigeria, as it is now obtainable elsewhere.

Igbakpa noted that since 2018 when President Muhammadu Buhari approved a legal framework called the Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations 2018 aimed at reducing Green House Gas through gas flaring, nothing visible has been achieved in this direction.

He explained further that in spite of the framework which provides legal basis for implementation of the  (NGFCP) which prohibits flare or vent of gas and imposes sanctions on defaulters, nothing concrete has been achieved to end gas flaring in Nigeria;

The House member, therefore, called on multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region to stop forthwith the continuous flaring of associated gas,  and rather install equipment for capturing the associated gas as it obtains elsewhere.

He urged the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPC and other regulatory bodies saddled with the responsibilities of ending gas flaring in Nigeria to ensure strict compliance with the ‘Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations 2018 as well as implementation of the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP)’.

The House, therefore, mandated the Committee on Petroleum Resources-Up Stream and Down Stream to ensure compliance.