NNPC supports legislation to stop gas flaring

Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has pledged to support any legislative process to end gas flaring.
He made the pledge in Abuja in a statement by Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s spokesman.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had said that it has put in place measures and facilities to curb gas flaring preparatory to the 2020 flare deadline.
Making this submission during a one-day public hearing on the Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill, 2017, at the National Assembly, Baru expressed NNPC’s strong support for the legislation to reduce gas flaring.
Represented by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Mr. Yusuf Matashi, he said the corporation considered the legislation from the financial benefits it promised to capture rather than seeing it from the point of view of penalty.
“NNPC supports the legislative intervention to prohibit gas flaring in line with global best practices, considering its negative impacts on the environment and the communities where the gas is flared.
“NPDC, the exploration and production arm of the corporation, is going ahead to see that the monetisation of flared gas is realized despite the challenges of the past,” he said.
He said that NPDC was the highest gas supplier to Nigerian domestic market and was therefore committed to the reduction and elimination of gas flaring to generate more revenue for the country.
Senate President Bukola Saraki represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Bala Nallah, said the issue of gas flaring was a national embarrassment.