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.
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