Nigeria loses N18bn to gas flaring in one month
Abuja -- Nigeria lost $59.85 million to gas flaring in January 2020, as oil and gas operating in the country flared 19.95 billion standard cubic feet, SCF, of gas in the month under review, according to data released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
In its Monthly Financial and Operations Report for January 2020, the NNPC stated that the volume of gas flared in January was 7.61 per cent higher than the 18.54 billion SCF flared in December 2019.
Using an average price of $3 per 1,000 SCF of gas for January 2020, and an average exchange rate of N307 to a dollar, 19.95 billion SCF of gas flared translates to a loss of N18.37 billion to the country.
The NNPC report further stated that total gas flared in January accounted for 7.87 per cent of total gas supply of 253.09 billion SCF of the commodity in the month under review.
The NNPC said: “Out of the 253.09 billion SCF of gas supplied in January 2020, a total of 151.16 billion SCF of gas was commercialised consisting of 36.20 billion SCF and 114.96 BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
“This translates to a total supply of 1.168 billion SCF of gas per day to the domestic market and 3.708 billion SCF of gas per day supplied to the export market for the month. This implies that 59.89% of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 40.11% was reinjected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
“Gas flare rate was 7.90% for the month under review, that is, 643.59 million SCF per day compared with average gas flare rate of 8.46 %, that is, 671.40 million SCF per day for the period January 2019 to January 2020".
The report explained that national gas production in January 2020 rose by 5.77 per cent at 253.09 billion SCF compared to the output in December 2019; translating to an average daily production of 8.164 billion SCF per day.
In addition, the national oil company noted that the daily average natural gas supply to gas power plants appreciated by 7.28 per cent to 639,000 SCF per day, enough to generate 2,683 megawatts of electricity.