Nigeria is losing $600 million due to underreporting of gas flaring every year, despite operators in the oil and gas sector being tasked to fully implement the mechanism put in place by the Advocacy for Gas Flared Accountability in Nigeria (AGFAN) to avert the trend.
Stakeholders who spoke during a technical session said Nigeria is a major gas flarer with global GHG emissions, estimated around 347million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
They believe gas flaring is a loose-loose situation, adding that, there has been heightened concerns and agitations in oil producing communities due to increased incidence of regular high temperature or thermal gradient and unprecedented heat for humans, crops and animals in flare vicinity.
As part of efforts to eradicate gas flaring in Nigeria, the federal government took a step by increasing the penalty for gas flaring, from 10 cents to $2, to force oil companies to convert the gas flared into something useful to the society, but that hasn’t yielded much result.