The House of Representatives has mandated its Committee on Gas Resources to investigate reported gas flaring volume and an alleged aggregate revenue loss of $680 million unpaid penalties by oil companies between in 2018 and 2019, among others.
This was after the adoption of a motion sponsored by Rep. Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims during plenary on Thursday.
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Presenting the motion, the lawmaker said the anomaly in flared volume reportage by the Nigeria Government has caused an outcry from civil society organisations.
He said, the Nigeria Media and the Coalition Against Gas Flare (CAGAF) an umbrella organ of CSOs in the gas flare ecosystem is also raising public awareness on the matter.
According to him, Nigeria gazetted the Flare Gas (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations 2018 to reduce and eliminate gas flare in the country through monetization and investment in the gas flare ecosystem.
He said after the penalty regime started, the gas flare volumes reported by Nigeria was drastically reduced for 2018 and 2019 and created a huge discrepancy between the gas flared volumes reported by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Gas Flare Tracker (GFT) which is satellite-based and the volumes declared by the Federal Government of Nigeria for the period.
He also said the Facility for Oil Sector Transformation (FOSTER), a British-backed agency, told the committee that: “It potentially represents an aggregate revenue loss of $680m in unpaid penalties to the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2018 and 2019”.
This volume of flared gas adds to other losses that include 98 gigawatts hour (GWH) of electricity during the period along with other economic, social and ethical implications.
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