END IN SIGHT FOR GAS FLARING IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In Nigeria the flaring of natural gas is as old as the exploitation of petroleum.  The early days of this business were dominated by ignorance of the deleterious impact of this menace on the entire environment and all life forms.  By the time awareness increased, demands began to be made for its regulation, but revenue from the oil and gas sector became too substantial to forfeit.  Meanwhile, scholars all over the world were making consistent empirical findings that the uncontrolled emission of natural gas into the atmosphere was increasingly endangering humanity and all other creatures on this planet.  International and global organisations had to be formed to check the trend and save the planet. Prompted by those moves, this nation made its first conscious effort to control, and gradually eradicate, routine gas flaring in 1979 with the enactment of Associated Gas Re-injection Act.  However, for a longtime implementation targets could not be met and so series of other legislation and regulations were enacted subsequently with very little success. Nevertheless, in the last two decades Government has been applying revised strategies in the pursuit of this goal with visible positive results.  This article examined the causes of the failure of the numerous previous efforts to eradicate gas flaring in Nigeria in conjunction with the factors responsible for the current wave of success.  It also extended to the strategies adopted by some other nations for purposes of contributing to the sustenance and improvement of the local regime.  The study found, principally, that in the beginning this objective failed because Government lacked the political will to enforce the law and also derailed in the provision of basic infrastructure to process the resource into a utilisable product. Consequently, the companies involved in the business became lukewarm as target dates were regularly extended.  The article has therefore concluded that, from available indices, in this phase the eradication of gas flaring in Nigeria is achievable.  It also recommended, among others, that Government should enforce the policy through a firm and credible legal and institutional framework that will command the respect of stakeholders and operators.