Huge Revenue Losses as Nigeria Misses Gas Flaring Deadlines

Each time Nigeria misses the deadlines set to harness gas belching from its oil fields, it loses revenue and an opportunity to ramp up power generation. Experts believe the gas Nigeria flares on its oil fields could be a huge revenue trove worth billions of dollars if well-harnessed for use as liquefied natural gas, plastics or fertilisers.

Nigeria first planned to end gas flaring by 1979, and the move decades ago proved potent, as it has been able to more than halve it since 2001. Since 1979 though, Nigeria missed gas flaring targets on at least seven occasions, with the latest missed in 2020.

The country is now targeting 2025 to end the environmentally unfriendly, health-damaging, and resource-losing act.

Gas flaring is the controlled combustion of associated gas, a large volume of which makes up Nigeria's gas reserves, generated during various processes including oil and gas recovery, petrochemical process, and landfill gas extraction, into open air.