- Oil Companies Waste 3,000MW of Electricity Through Gas Flaring
From waste to resources, the Federal Government has devised means to gainfully harness and utilize the huge volume of gas being wasted by oil companies in Nigeria.
The volume of gas being wasted through gas flaring by oil firms in Nigeria, if harnessed, is estimated to be enough to generate up to 3000 megawatts of electricity and sufficient to power two or three liquefied natural gas trains.
The Programme Manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme, Justice Derefaka said that about 22 million tonnes of Carbon IV Oxide was flared by oil companies in Nigeria, a volume which amounts to $500 million.
“For the 22 million tonnes CO2 we emit, we lose approximately $500m emission credit value. If harnessed, we could power two to three LNG trains and if used for power, we could generate about 3,000MW of electricity.
“Additionally, the gas could be put to good use and potentially displace other fuels like coal and diesel that generate higher emissions per energy unit,” he said.
Also, Derefaka decried that Nigeria through gas flaring had been burning money that could be put to use in generating wealth, reducing the rate of unemployment and also generating electricity for the masses.
Derefaka said that the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme would reduce Nigeria’s Carbondioxide emissions by approximately 13 million tonnes per year, which could be monetized under an emission or carbon sale programme.
Senior officials of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources who spoke in a briefing, said that the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme by the Federal Government, was specifically designed to address the utilization of gas flaring, especially in the Niger Delta regions.
The Ministry said that over 700 organisations had registered on the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme portal to bid for about 178 gas flare sites located in the Niger Delta regions.
The World Bank estimates that gas flaring resulted in the burning of 147 billin metres of natural gas in 2015, a figure that could generate 750 billion KWh of electricity, a quantity that exceeds the current annual consumption of the entire African continent.
