Senate stresses support for 2020 gas flares out date

The Senate Committee on Gas has expressed the National Assembly’s support for the 2020 national deadline for final elimination of gas flaring in the country.

The committee expressed the support as its members made an oversight functions visit to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), during which the committee chairman, Senator Bassey Albert, assured that the Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill would be passed next month, and would become law before the end of the year.

He said the bill is currently on third reading and would be giving accelerated hearing to enable it to come to fruition.

ALSO READ: The Shiite killings

He explained that the bill, when passed, would eliminate gas flaring and put punitive measures against perpetrators of the act by increasing the penalty fees from N10 per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet, SCF, of gas to three dollars 50 cents per 1,000 SCF of gas.

Albert also expressed discontent over the manner gas resources were being treated like a byproduct, saying there was the need for a paradigm shift on the part of the country to see gas as an economic enabler.

The legislator said the Senate was not resting on its oars to ensure that all the grey areas spotted by the president in the botched Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill were addressed and sent back to him for final assent.

He promised that the Senate will look at the other legs of the Petroleum Industry Bill as part of its contribution to ensure a robust oil and gas industry in Nigeria.