Nigeria’s significantly low oil production in 2022 strained government revenue, affected the value of naira and helped push national debt to the highest level in years. But it had a big and surprising blessing: it delivered a major cut on Nigeria’s oil-related air pollution level.
Last year, Nigeria recorded the biggest reduction in gas flaring in the world, beating the United States, Mexico and other countries, according to a World Bank report released on March 29.
The latest Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, a leading global and independent indicator of gas flaring, found that global gas flaring decreased by 3% to 139 billion cubic metres in 2022 from 144 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2021.
Three countries, Nigeria, Mexico, and the United States, accounted for most of the decline in global gas flaring in 2022, and two other countries—Kazakhstan and Colombia— stood out for consistently reducing flaring volumes in the last seven years.
“Nigeria contributed the most to the overall global reduction, reducing its flare volumes by 1.3 bcm in 2022, a 20% reduction from 2021 levels,” the World Bank report said.
“This was largely attributable to a 14% decline in oil production during the same period, although Nigeria did experience a slight improvement in its flaring intensity, reducing from 11.8 m 3/bbl in 2021 to 11.1 m 3/bbl in 2022.”
Nigeria’s oil production fell in 2022, at some point dropping below 1 million barrels per day, resulting in Nigeria momentarily losing its position as Africa’s biggest producer to Angola.
– Gas flaring history
Gas flares are like tall columns that emit fire into the air over oil fields. They’re designed to burn off natural gas produced during oil extraction.
They pose serious health risks to people who have to breathe it in and drink the water it contaminates. And because it produces carbon, flares contribute to climate change.
Nigeria is one of the top seven gas-flaring countries. The World Bank estimates that around 2 million people in the country live less than 4 km away from a flare site in the Niger Delta. Most of the focus on the impact of flaring has been on the economic impacts. Likely harm to human health, which can be long-lasting, has largely been ignored, the Bank said.
For decades, Nigeria has tried but failed to harness gas burning over its oil fields so it can be exported or used to generate power but has failed in part due to lack of finance. The government instead opted to fine companies, an option campaigners view as too little to deter.
The government moved its deadlines to end flaring repeatedly to 2020 and now to 2030 as part of its commitments to mitigate climate change.
“Gas flaring has been considered illegal and a criminal activity in Nigeria since 1979. But when the oil companies blackmail the Nigerian government, the government will shift the gas flare deadline,” Ken Henshaw, executive director of We The People, a Port Harcourt-based nongovernmental group campaigning for oil community rights in the Niger Delta, said at an event in March.
“They keep blackmailing the Nigerian government because they know that Nigeria cannot survive without Oil money. What all the 36 governors know is to go to Abuja to collect money. So far they have moved the Gas flaring deadline for 8 times in Nigeria.”
A gas commercialization programme now seeks to trap and convert flared gas to useful gas it can export or use for power generation.
– Still a big polluter
Despite its improvement last year, Nigeria remains a notorious gas flaring nation.
The World Bank said the top nine flaring countries continue to be responsible for the vast majority of flaring. Russia, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Venezuela, the United States, Mexico, Libya, and Nigeria account for nearly three-quarters of flare volumes and just under half of global oil production, it said.
The regulator, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), said in 2022 that 12 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted as gas flares valued at $0.79 billion, with a fine equivalent of $450 million, much of that not collected.
ExxonMobil flared the most during the period, burning 2.52 billion standard cubic foot in December 2022, followed by Addax, and Shell.
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