The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu has again warned again for the fourth time that any oil company that cannot stop gas flaring by 2019 should stop producing.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian government has in the last five year shifted gas flaring terminal date three times and none was met.
However, Kachikwu stated that the Department of Petroleum Resources would become severe in upholding sanctions against defaulters by preventing them from oil production from next year.
While giving the marching order at the 2018 Buyers’ Forum/Stakeholders’ Engagement organised by the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria Limited in Abuja, the minister said any oil firm that could not end gas flaring ought not to be producing and possibly lookout for another business.
According to him, “Government wants to end flare; oil companies still give lots of reasons why flare cannot be ended. Bottom line is cash call and money. But the reality is that whether or not we deal with cash call issues, it is not an optional agenda. It is a compulsive immediate agenda. It is destructive to the populace; it is intolerable in developed countries and it should not be tolerable here either.
“Any oil company that cannot find a way to end its flare ought not to be producing. And I have said to the DPR that beginning from next year, we are going to get quite frantic about this. Companies that cannot meet with extended periods, the issue is not how much you pay in terms of fines for flaring; the issue is that you will not produce. We need to begin to look at foreclosing of licences. It is that urgent,” Kachukwu averred.
He recalled that the quest to discourage gas flaring made the Federal Government to initiate the gas flare commercialisation programme, saying future renewal of oil and gas licences would involve the assessment of the gas components and gas flare rate of each company seeking renewal.
He said “Some of the ones that have come recently for renewals have insisted that they are building massive gas processing plants and we are going to follow this right through so that the supply obligation, the processing facility, the treatment of gas and their submissions are very accurate and aggressive”.
Continuing, he emphasised the need for a critical implementation of the domestic supply obligation, which would be extended to domestic supply and processing obligation for both gas and crude oil.
In his views, he argued that Nigeria must move away from the point of just producing these commodities, throwing them into the vessel and shipping them out, to the point of processing them locally.
In his remarks, the Managing Director, GACN, Morgan Okwoche, called for increased support for the gas company and highlighted the need for optimum collaboration among industry players in the development of the gas sector.
Analysts had over the years been accusing the federal government of toiling with the future of Nigerians as it continues to foot-drag final end to gas flaring in the country.
