Nigeria lost $64.05 million, an equivalent of N19.6 billion, to gas flaring in one month, as oil and gas firms operating in the country flared 18.30 billion Standard Cubic Feet (SCF) of gas in January 2019, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The NNPC, in its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for January 2019, stated that the amount lost to gas flaring represented a 16.4 per cent decline from the $76.62 million, about N23.44 billion lost in December 2018. Specifically, the report noted that 18.3 billion SCF of gas was flared by the oil and gas companies in January 2019, compared to 21.89 billion SCF of the commodity flared in December 2018.
However, the report pointed out that the country continued to record significant milestone in its efforts to combat gas flaring, declaring that the volume of gas flared in January accounted for 7.48 per cent of the month’s total gas production of 244.65 billion SCF; compared to December, when the volume of gas flared accounted for 9.09 per cent of total gas produced, which stood at 240.59 billion SCF. Despite the decline in volume of gas flared, the report stated total non-commercialised gas appreciated by 4.11 per cent from 89.46 billion SCF in December 2018 to 93.14 billion SCF in January 2019.
Giving a breakdown of the volume of non-commercialised gas, the report stated that in addition to the volume of gas flared, 62.58 billion SCF was utilized as re-injected gas in January 2019, rising by 12.53 per cent from 55.61 billion SCF recorded in December 2018; while 12.26 billion SCF was utilized as fuel gas, rising by 2.51 per cent from 11.96 billion SCF recorded in December 2018. On the commercialized gas segment, the report stated total domestic gas consumed dipped by 1.5 per cent from 38.61 billion SCF in December 2018, to 38.03 billion SCF in the period under review; while export gas appreciated slightly by 0.84 per cent from 112.52 billion SCF in December 2019 to 113.47 billion SCF in January 2019. In the domestic gas segment, 23.48 billion SCF and 14.55 billion SCF were supplied to the power and industrial sectors respectively in January 2019, representing a decline of 2.17 per cent and 0.41 per cent compared to 24 billion SCF and 14.61 billion SCF supplied to the power and industrial sectors respectively in December 2018.
In the export gas segment, the report noted that 1.98 billion SCF was exported through the West African Gas Pipeline; 7.75 billion SCF was utilized through the Escravos Gas to Liquid facility; while 3.37 billion SCF and 100.35 billion SCF was exported through Natural Gas Liquid/Liquefied Petroleum Gas, NGL/LPG, and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, respectively. The report added that, “Total gas supply for the period January 2019 to January 2019 stood at 3.08 trillion SCF, out of which 468.23 billion SCF, and 1.343 billion SCF were commercialized for the domestic and export market respectively. Gas re-injected, fuel gas and gas flared stood at 1.27 trillion billion SCF.”
SOURCE: oglinks.news