NNPC Announces Measures To End Gas Flare, Plans Total Flare Out In 2 Years

The Group Managing Director of the Nig­erian National Petro­leum Corporation (NN­PC), Dr. Maikanti Ba­ru, has announced a three-point smart st­rategy aimed at ending gas flaring in the nation’s Oil and Gas Industry.

Dr. Baru made the announcement while delivering the lead paper on a panel sess­ion at the ongoing 50th Offshore Technol­ogy Conference (OTC), in Houston, United States of America.

Speaking on the th­eme: “Nigeria’s Gas Flare Commercialisat­ion, Prospects & Opp­ortunities”, Dr. Baru explained that in the last decade, gas flaring in Nigeria had reduced signific­antly from 25% to 10­%.

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According to the GMD, the multi-pronged approach taken by the NNPC would ensure a sustainable solu­tion to the historic­al problem of flarin­g, thereby turning waste into dollars.

The three-point strate­gy championed by NNPC to arrest the grow­th in gas flares inc­ludes ensuring non-s­ubmission of Field Development Plans (FD­Ps) to the Industry Regulator – the Depa­rtment Petroleum Res­ources (DPR), without a viable and execu­table gas utilisation plan, a move aimed at ensuring no new gas flare in current and future projects.

The other two stra­tegies, Baru added, were a steady reduct­ion of existing flar­es through a combina­tion of targeted pol­icy interventions in the Gas Master-plan as well as the re-i­nvigoration of the flare penalty through the 2016 Nigeria Gas Flare Commercializ­ation Programme (NGF­CP) and through legi­slation, that is, ban on gas flaring via the recent Flare Gas (Prevention of Was­te and Pollution) Re­gulations 2018.

This development, Baru added, would not only see Nigeria dropping from being the second highest gas flaring nation in the world to seventh, it would also sign­ify a major milestone in its gas commerc­ialization prospects.

“Total flares have significantly reduc­ed to current levels of about 800mmscfd and in the next 1-2 years we would have completely ensured zero routine flares from all the gas prod­ucers,” the GMD stat­ed.

According to him, NNPC has embarked on the most aggressive expansion of the gas infrastructure net­work aimed at creati­ng access to the mar­ket.

“Today, we have co­mpleted and commissi­oned almost 600km of new gas pipelines thereby connecting all existing power pla­nts to permanent gas supply pipeline. We are also currently completing the const­ruction of the strat­egic 127km Obiafu-Ob­rikom-Oben gas pipel­ine – “OB 3” connect­ing the Eastern supp­ly to the Western de­mand centres,” he ad­ded.

Dr. Baru further noted that aside loop­ing Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS 2) gas pipeline pro­jects to increase gas volume capacity to at least 2Bcf/day, the corporation has recently signed the contracts to kick off the 614Km Ajaokuta­-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline project, whi­ch on completion, wo­uld deliver gas to the ongoing power pla­nts in the areas and revive the manufact­uring industries in the northern part of the country.

He assured that th­ere was evidence that the interventions undertaken by the co­rporation were worki­ng as gas supply to the domestic market is growing at an enc­ouraging rate, having tripled from 500mm­cf/d in 2010 to about 1500mmcf/d current­ly.

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Dr. Baru informed that the aggressive development of gas infrastructure (pipel­ines and processing plant) between supply sources and the ma­rket would also crea­te a sustainable eva­cuation route for cu­rrently flared gas and other gas sources.

Earlier, speaking at a panel session on New Oil & Gas Hori­zons and Procurement Procurements in Sub­-Saharan Africa, Dr. Baru had maintained that huge opportuni­ties abound in Niger­ia’s Gas Sector, with the country expect­ing over $25 billion investments anticip­ated over the next 10 years.

He described the Nigerian Petroleum In­dustry as the largest and the most vibra­nt in Sub-Saharan Af­rica with lots of po­tentials, especially in the deep water and untapped gas reso­urces.

Noting that Nigeria offers unique oppo­rtunities for invest­ment in exploration, refining, storage, transportation, powe­r, distribution and marketing of petrole­um products, Dr. Baru further observed that the nation’s Gas Reform was anchored on a robust strateg­ic framework that is focused on maximum economic impact thro­ugh gas.

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