IN an attempt to track incidences of gas flaring and monitor oil spillages in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, has launched two online platforms for monitoring oil spills and tracking gas flares in the Niger Delta region.
At the launch and handover of the environmental monitoring tools, the ‘Oil Spill Monitor and Gas Flare Tracker’, Director General of the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, Idris Musa, disclosed that the software tools would provide accuracy to data obtained on actual volume of gas flared in the country by oil firms and forestall future revenue losses to the country’s earning.
“Besides that, we would be able to tell how much heat is generated, how much gas is flared and what the cost of the gas flared is. Perhaps, if it has been compressed, treated and utilized, this is the number of dollars it would have given us by way of revenue. Flaring the gas is also burning what ordinarily should have been revenue to us,” he said.
The online tools Gas Flare Tracker and Oil Spill Monitor were data portals developed by Stakeholder Democratic Network, SDN, while Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform, FOSTER.
Data obtained by The ICIR from the gas flare tracker revealed that Nigeria has lost an estimated $4.7 billion in revenue earnings to gas flaring in eight states from March 2012 to April 2019.
The states include Rivers, Imo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, and Abia.
Delta State records the highest flare at 468.6 million Mscf, closely followed by Rivers State with 414.5 million Mscf gas flare and Bayelsa State with 237.9 million Mscf in third.
The Mscf stands for one thousand cubic feet which is a standard unit for measuring gas.
It also showed that 116.2 million Mscf of gas was flared over 86 months between 2012 to 2019 in Edo state while Akwa Ibom State recorded 36.2 million Mscf of flare between 84 months from 2012 – 2019.
While Abia flared 4.3 million Mscf within 47 months from 2012 to 2019, Imo also flared 67.6 million Mscf over 86 months from 2012 to 2019 and Anambra flared 1.6 million Mscf within 21 months from 2012 to 2015.
However, a few months when gas was flared was unaccounted for in the dataset for the period under review for States like Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and Abia.
The data portal also revealed 198 active flare sites in the eight states examined where gas is currently been flared.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.