Abuja, Nigeria – The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, has inaugurated a 12-member Flare Gas Commercialisation Programme Team.
The team will be responsible for the processing and coordination of the Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme towards the Federal Government’s initiative to end gas flaring by 2025.
The Federal Government had declared the period 2021 to 2030 as the “Decade of Gas”, a period within which the nation must shift focus from oil-centred exploitation to gas driven industrial development.
Although the World Bank has set 2030 as the target year to end gas flaring, Nigeria has set a country deadline for 2025 while President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment toward the Paris Agreement during the COP26 Leaders’ Summit to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2060.
In 2016, the Federal Government initiated the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) to end flaring of natural gas by oil companies operating in the country.
At the inauguration of the Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme Team in Abuja over the weekend, NUPRC’s Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, stated that monetising gas resources are a positive step towards guaranteeing energy security, especially in the global energy transition period.
He said as a nation, Nigeria must ensure that it harnesses all available gas resources for value creation.
He announced that NUPRC is recommencing the process of issuing flare sites to technically competent companies, following a competitive bid process. This process has become crucial in view of the policy direction of the Federal Government to ensure all gas resources are developed for National development.
The Commission is currently carrying out a study in conjunction with external technical resources to identify suitable flare sites for the auction process. It was for this purpose that the committee of staff of the Commission was inaugurated to drive the process and coordinate implementation of the programme.
The steering committee members are K.O. Ofoegbu and O.I. Anyanechi; while A.T. Adeyiga, J.O. Ogunsola, J.C. Anyanwu, A.O. Okwah, O.E. Oje, N.E. Odega, K. R. Abisoye, J. C. Echendu, C. I. Chukwukaelo and G. L. Umoru form the programme team.
The Chief Executive appreciated the support from the USTDA, USAID, and other stakeholders and reiterated the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that the programme is expeditiously executed.
The inauguration was witnessed by a delegation from USAID comprising Mr. Oladiran Adesua, Jennifer Ifeanyi Okoro, and Andrew Smith.
