Nigeria flared 276bn cubic feet of natural gas in 13 months – NNPC
RIPPLES NIGERIA
Nigeria flared a total of 276.04 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas in a 13-month period from September 2018 to September 2019, data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has revealed.
According to the NNPC’s latest operations and financial reports, the quantity of gas flared in the period under review surpassed the volume supplied to power generation companies in the country, which stood at 275.31bcf.
The reports put the country’s average gas flare rate in the 13-month period at 8.91% just as the daily average of flared gas was estimated to be 706.10 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).
The month-by-month analysis demonstrates that a total of 20.54bcf of gas and a daily average of 684.69mmscfd of gas were flared in September 2018.
In October 2018, a total of 20.51bcf of gas was flared at a daily average of 683.40mmscfd. 23.78bcf of gas was flared in November 2019 at a daily average of 792.49mmscfd.
December 2018 saw the country flare a total of 21.89bcf of gas and a daily average of 729.55mmscfd.
The reports observed that Nigeria flared a total of 18.30bcf and 610.07mmscfd in January 2019; 21.22bcf and 757.94mmscfd in February 2019; 24.95bcf and 804.69mmscfd in March 2019; 24.82bcf and 827.42mmscfd in April 2019; 19.84bcf and 661.47mmscfd in May 2019; 18.12bcf and 603.97mmscfd in June 2019; 20.47bcf and 660.04mmscfd in July 2019; 21.66bcf and 698.78mmscfd in August 2019, and 19.94bcf and 664.70mmscfd in September 2019.
The NNPC said “Total gas supply for the period September 2018 to September 2019 stood at 3,091.74bcf out of which 463.07bcf and 1,353.60bcf were commercialised for the domestic and export market respectively. Gas re–injected, fuel gas and gas flared stood at 1,275.07bcf.”
On the volume of gas supplied to power companies for electricity production, it stated that an average of 615mmscfd of gas was supplied in September 2018 to produce an average of 2,303 megawatts (MW) of electricity; 627mmscfd for 2,349MW in October 2018; 735mmscfd for 2,849MW in November and 774mmscfd for 3,131MW in December 2018.
The corporation noted that power generation companies got an average of 757mmscfd to produce an average of 3,124MW per day of electricity in January 2019. They got 820mmscfd for 3,336MW in February; 777mmscfd for 3,223MW in March; 728mmscfd for 3,095MW in April; 761mmscfd for 2,958 MW in May and 751mmscfd for 2,896MW in June.
The generation companies were supplied 730mmscfd (for 2,864MW), 666mmscfd (for 2,462MW) and 595mmscfd (for 2,227MW) in July, August and September 2019 respectively.
Gas flaring remains increasingly worrisome in Nigeria despite the Federal Government’s signing of the Paris Agreement on 22nd September 2016 as part of its commitment to join global efforts in reducing climate change impacts owing to escalating emission of Green House Gases (GHG).
Instead of taking effective and enduring measures to stop flared gas, oil companies are charged to pay fines, often captured in the tax remitted to government.
The Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGPR) had in its 2018 report, which assessed carbon emission practices worldwide from 2014 to 2018, ranked Nigeria as the 7th most notorious country in the world for gas flaring.
The latest publication of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said the Nigerian economy lost $761 million (about N233 billion) to gas flaring in 2018, representing 3.8% of the total global cost for that year.
It equally stated that the country needed to plant 7.5 million hectares of tree to check gas flaring effects in Nigeria.