Nigeria has granted permits to 28 firms to purchase gas currently being burned off by the oil industry, as the West African nation seeks to cut emissions and earn revenue from a resource otherwise going to waste, in a move expected to attract up to two billion dollars in investment. Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission head Gbenga Komolafe announced that there were a total of 42 bids to harvest gas being flared at 49 sites in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, with the remaining 14 candidates still to meet the requirements for a permit.
“Between 250 and 300 million standard cubic feet of gas will be captured and commercialized under the initiative,” Komolafe told an event in Abuja on Friday. He said the move, part of a wider effort to curb Nigerian emissions to net zero by 2060, will help attract up to two billion dollars in investment and create more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The NUPRC estimated that the initiative will eliminate roughly six million tons of carbon dioxide annually and support nearly three gigawatts of potential electricity generation capacity. Africa’s largest crude producer is estimated to have larger gas reserves than it has oil, but gas is routinely burned off during the oil production process because it has not been commercially viable to utilize. The government wants to change this by providing incentives to the industry via the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Program. Nigeria’s gas output stood at about 221 billion standard cubic feet of gas in October, with about 7.6% of it flared according to information on the website of the NUPRC.
The approval comes days after NNPC and local producer Heirs Energies signed a deal to capture and use the gas flared at their onshore OML 17 joint venture near Port Harcourt. Under that agreement, the companies will capture the gas flared across OML 17 and deploy it for use in power generation, industrial applications, liquefied petroleum gas, and compressed natural gas.
Gas flaring has been a major issue at Nigeria’s oilfields, as the resource is wasted instead of being used for many industrial purposes, holding back the country’s targets to reduce emissions. Nigeria saw flaring volumes jump by 12% in 2024, which was the second largest increase globally behind Iran, according to the World Bank.
Sources: worldoil.com, oilprice.com