The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Distinguished Senator Bassey Albert has declared that Nigeria loses about $2.5b yearly to gas flaring. Albert made the disclosure on Thursday in Abuja during the public hearing of the Gas Flaring (Prohibition) bill held at the National Assembly.
This is just as the senate began moves to enact a legislation to outlaw gas flaring in the country. Senator Albert also lamented that gas flaring is creating so much health hazard. He added ‘’Gas flaring has remained a major economic and environmental challenge since the discovery of oil in the 50s’’. If the new initiative by the senate is able to stop the practice it will mark a paradigm shift in oil exploration and exploitation in the country.
As part of echoes from the public hearing, oil and Gas communities have requested that money generated from gas flaring penalties levies unpaid by the oil companies under the extant Act should be paid to the host communities.
The Chairman of the Senate Gas Committee who is representing Akwa Ibom North East in the 8th Senate, Senator Bassey Albert noted that despite the huge concentration of gas reserves in Nigeria, issues of unsustainable exploration practices and the absence of gas utilization infrastructure have promoted the dangerous practice of gas flaring in the country.
The Gas Prohibition bill according to Senator Albert seeks to prohibit the development of oil and gas fields without a plan for the utilization of Associated Gas (AG).
It also addresses the inadequacies of the 1985 Gas Reinjection Act while also bringing gas flare penalty in line with current economic realities. The bill will ensure the achievement of the international flares out target of January 1,2030 as well as ensuring the timely review of gas flaring regulations and deployment of an online real time monitoring mechanisms.
Meanwhile Senator Albert alongside the Chair Senate Committee on Power, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe and other members on Thursday embarked on oversight function to Green field oil and Gas Limited, a mini LNG Gas project in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
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