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Adewale Sanyaolu
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), says it has identified 178 gas flare points across different oil producing fields across the country.
The Director of DPR, Mr. Mordecai Baba Ladan, stated this at the opening ceremony of the pre-qualification exercise for shortlisted companies under the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).
The NGFCP is a special programme domiciled in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and established to implement the National Gas Policy commitment for stricter regulation of flaring, the “7 Big Wins” (www.7bigwins.com) and a pathway to ultimate flare-out.
Ladan, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Gas Monitoring and Regulation, explained that, the move to identify the 178 flare gas points across the oil producing states was part of President Muhammadu Buhari, and former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources’ agenda to achieve zero gas flare in Nigeria by 2020.
According to data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), oil and gas firms operating in the country flared a total of 282.08 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas in 2018, amounting to a potential loss of N234billion.
Ladan said about 850 companies had earlier showed interest when the advert was placed but later dropped to 250 companies when a fee of $1,000 dollars (N360,000) was attached to the application form in adddition to other processing documentation to know those who are serious.
“Today, we are commencing the evaluation of statement of qualifications for the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme. The advertisement was placed for interested parties who are willing to come to take the flared gas on behalf of the government.We are going to open the documents to ascertain those companies that have showed interest and submitted their statement of qualification in response to the advert placed in 2018. After the evaluation, the successful companies will move to the next stage.
The Nigerian Gas Commercialisation Programme, which is government’s flagship programme that will create opportunity to take flared gas under the provision of Petroleum Act, also authorised gas commercialisation through third party companies in order to promote investment and get people who are qualified technically, have the capability and experience to work in Niger Delta to harness gas flare to market. So, we are currently doing preliminary evaluation process that will see companies that qualify to the next stage,” he said.
According to the Deputy Manager, Gas Production and Monitoring Unit, Mr. Oluwole Ogunsola, “The Federal Government through the DPR and other stakeholders are interested in credible companies with technical capacity and financial capability to be able to take flare gas to market and that is why the net is wide at this time.
“There is no constraint to the number of firms that should undertake the programme. But ultimately, you find out that as you go along, some will drop by the side, it’s like a funnel, it would go narrower until we get to the key companies that will be able to take the flared gas to market. So, government is not constraining it so that will get the best out of the process.
The provision of the law on paragraph 35b of the first Schedule to the Petroleum Act stipulated that government has the right on the flared gas, so government has invoked that right by means of deregulation of the flared gas(Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulation of 2018, signed by Mr President and former honourable minister of State, Petroleum Resources, which came into effect July 2018. By that regulation, government owns the flared gas and the producer has not title to the flared gas, government can now allocate it to competent companies that can take it to market place, so, its government right.
