IOC’s, others default in $3.6bn gas flare penalty

By Adewale Sanyaolu

Efforts to shore up Government revenue amid current economic downturn has further been dashed as International Oil Companies (IOCs) and their indigenous oil firms counterparts have defaulted to the tune of $3.6 billion gas flare penalty.

This was even as the Federal Government assured it was pushing to ensure that the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) becomes a success story.

NGFCP was launched in 2016 and is designed as the strategy to implement the policy objectives of the Federal Government for the elimination of gas flares with potential enormous multiplier and development outcomes for Nigeria.

The objective of NGFCP is to eliminate gas flaring through technically and commercially sustainable gas utilisation projects developed by competent third party investors who have been invited to participate in a competitive and transparent bid process.

Deputy Managing Director of Falcon Corporation and moderator of the panel session on ‘‘Fortifying the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry for Economic Stability and Growth’’ at the Nigerian Oil and Gas(NOG) conference which ended in Abuja recently, Mrs. Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, said the $3.6 billion gas flare payment default represents eight billion standard cubic feet(scf) of gas flared in the last nine years. She lamented that the eight billion scf flared in nine years could have generated about 180,000 gig of electricity to improve the nation’s fragile economy.

The Falcon Corporation DMD added that, in 2020, gas producers flared about 1.24 billion scf of gas, saying ‘‘you could have imagined how much electricity that could have generated in an economy of ours that is so much in need of electricity’’. She said, though gas flare numbers have dropped to about 11 per cent,  the 11 per cent drop could still have generated some quantum of electricity if not flared.