FG loses $2.5bn to gas flaring - Expert

Mr Chinedu Onyeizu, Chief Executive Officer, AfriPERA, an Energy and Infrastructure Policy research organisation, says Nigeria loses about 2.5 billion dollars annually from gas flaring in the country.

Onyeizu disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja.

“Since the 1950’s, Nigeria has been burning off its natural gas at flare points and despite efforts by successive administrations to curtail the wastage, the country loses an estimated 2.5 billion dollars each year to gas flaring as well as unattended impact of negative externalities associated to gas flaring,’’ he said

He said that the country’s natural reserves was the 7th largest in the world and the largest in Africa, adding that it was estimated that Nigeria had over 187 trillion cubic feet(tcf) of proven natural gas in reserves.

According to him, the country has an additional 600 tcf of unproven volume, 40 per cent of the proven volume is associated with gas

“In other words, they are produced alongside oil and largely flared at location where we don’t have facilities to harness them,’’ he added.

He said that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna -Kano gas pipeline (AKK) project if well conceived would accrue to the country as the project could be transformational. (NAN)