Just as the scarcity of cooking gas continues in cities, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it had succeeded in reducing gas flaring in by 26 percentage points in the last 10 years from 36 to 10.
In a statement, the corporation said it had improved Nigeria ranking as the second highest gas flaring nation in 2006 to the seventh position in 2016, saying the Federal Government had mapped out measures to end gas flaring by 2020 using the new Gas Master Plan.
Chief Operating Officer, Upstream, NNPC, Mr. Bello Rabiu, said the country was flaring 2.5 billion standard cubic feet of gas as of 2006, while consuming only 300mscf per day, but stressed that technology had helped the industry to improve the situation.
The corporation’s spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, quoted Rabiu as saying, “The Gas Master Plan was geared towards addressing four key critical issues of gas availability, infrastructure, commercialisation framework and gas affordability.”
He averred that though the implementation of the plan was driven by the NNPC, it was sponsored by all the oil and gas companies operating in the country, and that it had helped in addressing some of the issues confronting the sector.
However, NNPC said to ensure affordability, the plan stipulated a lower price for gas being supplied to the power sector, described as the most important segment; while the industrial and manufacturing sectors should get the product at a commercial rate.
