October, 4
Nigeria Gas Flaring: Challenges and Possibilities
According to Dada Thomas, the President of the Nigeria Gas Association (NGA), Nigeria has made substantial progress in gas flare reduction but still struggling to solve the problem completely.

Thomos revealed this at a briefing announcing the fourth coming NGA International gas conference and exhibition to be held in Abuja in October.

"Even, 700cfpd is too much as that could generate 3,000 megawatts of power and we are flaring such on daily basis. Let's turn it into zero, value and let us clean up the environment," he stressed.

The NGA boss frowned at the Federal Government's planned revocation of licenses of oil companies that failed to stop flaring of gas in their operations in the country next year.

He said, "The revocation of licenses is the ultimate sanctions and there ought to be other measures before the conclusion of revocation of licenses. The government will take ownership of gas that should go to the flare and will bring that to interested companies who can monetize what ordinarily would have been treated as waste and flare.

Outlining strategies needed to grow the gas sector, Thomas advised the government to take proactive steps to accelerate the process of concluding the Petroleum Industry Governance and Fiscal Bills and signing them into law, to attract investment in the oil and gas sector.

As for natural gas revolution, Thomas said that natural gas would be a far bigger player in meeting the country's future energy challenge than had previously assumed. But to unlock the potentials, the right environment should be created by government through addressing lapses in the existing laws, by ensuring that the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, PIGB, is accented to by the president. Thomas said current liquidity in the sector is creating unpleasant situation and may worsen if gas suppliers are not paid for gas supplied to the power sector.

Also speaking, Vice President, NGA, Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, stated that the benefits of natural gas in meeting the country's future energy needs are well-documented, and that it's supply is increasingly abundant and diverse, which means greater energy security.

He, however, pointed out that turning natural gas into a profit-making venture requires huge investments in infrastructure that address the five component areas of gas availability, gas affordability, deliverability, funding, and the legal and regulatory framework.