Nigeria flared more than 4.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas, leading to the country’s loss of more than $14.6 billion worth of revenue between 2012 and 2021.
This is in addition to an $8.3 billion dollars loss in a penalty for the wastages totaling $22.9 billion dollars loss within the same period.
This was disclosed by Mrs. Margaret Adeshida, Director of ICT in the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), during an interactive forum with delegations from Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), NOSDRA and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in Abuja, recently.
Mrs. Adeshida said the development underscored the need for proper monitisation of gas flaring in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Monday, Mr. Nwachukwu Christian, P.R.O of the RMAFC said, “Earlier, the Director of ICT in NOSDRA, Mrs. Margaret Adeshida underscored the need for proper monitisation of gas flaring in Nigeria, noting that the country flared more than 4.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas leading to Nigeria’s loss of more than $14.6 billion worth of revenue between 2012 and 2021.
“This is in addition to $8.3 billion dollars loss in penalty for the wastage totalling $22.9 billion dollars loss within the same period.”
Mr. Nwachukwu added that the RMAFC is to partner the NUPRC and NOSDRA to boost revenue generation through proper management of gas flaring in line with global best practice.
This, he stated was disclosed by the RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello Shehu during the interactive forum, and is in a bid to arrest huge revenue losses recorded and enhance revenue generation into government coffers.
According to him, Mr. Shehu noted that in view of the concerted effort of the current government to shore up the nation’s revenue generation, the gas sector of the economy must be given adequate attention with NUPRC and NOSDRA as regulatory bodies in determining quality and quantities of gas production alongside adherence to enviromental standards for host Communities.
Responding, the Director of Economic Regulation and Strategic planning of NUPRC, Mr. Babajide Fashino noted that Nigeria is at the fore front of managing gas flaring in line with global best practices for economic growth and sustainability.
This, he said is done with the introduction of metering system and callibration of the meters for accurate records of gas management.
According to Babajide, the introduction of such technologies has gone a long way in reducing gas flaring in Nigeria from 40 percent to mere 7 percent.
Mr. Shehu therefore called on all the relevant stake holders in the management of gas economy including the revenue monitoring committee of the present administration to salvage the country by coming together to work out proper strategies to convert the gas flared to economic use for enhancing revenue generation into the Federation Account.
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