Nigeria’s flared gas can power 3,000 households at 1000kWh monthly

Nigeria’s government has on separate occasions shown it is aware gas flaring comes at colossal economic and environmental costs but the gas commercialisation initiative of government still struggles to overcome lethargy.

When crude oil is extracted from onshore or offshore oil fields it brings with it raw natural gas to the surface, where natural gas transportation, pipelines and infrastructure are lacking this gas is instead burned off or flared as waste product as this is the cheapest option, particularly when gas prices are low and fines are not collected by national regulatory bodies.

Gas has been flared in Nigeria since the 1950’s. Despite the acute energy poverty faced by Nigerians and legislative efforts to reduce gas flaring, it is still a major cause of human and environmental health issues in the Niger Delta and releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and pollutant gases into the atmosphere.

A document from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), cited by BusinessDay July 27 stated that additional 3,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity can be generated from the current gas being flared in Nigeria.

BusinessDay’s estimates show that additional 3, 000 MW can power three million households in Nigeria. This is because an average Nigerian household would need 1000kWh per month, depending on the energy efficiencies of appliances, for relative comfort. At 1000kWh per month, three thousand households can be powered. Here is the reasoning.

An average Nigerian middle class household uses about 300 kWh of electricity per month, which costs an average of N7500 but this is not sufficient to satisfy most families’ power needs because they receive electricity an average of six hours per day for 30 days in a month.

Twenty-four hours of electricity, means the bill could go up to N30,000 per month and that would give about 1200 kWh which can satisfy an average Nigerian family of today. An average Nigerian household would then need at least 1000 kWh worth of it per day but that may not be so quick in coming.

So, if every Nigerian family has at least 1000 kWh of electricity per month, it would make life easier for them but since electricity generation is not sufficient for all Nigerians who need it, the power company normally does what is called load shedding, which means rationing of electricity to people and this offers about four to six hours of electricity on the average per day.

Nigeria has over 150 flare sites, flaring hundreds of billions of standard cubic feet (scf) of natural gas each year (in 2015, Nigeria flared 800MMscfpd of associated gas), losing billions of dollars’ worth of economic potential to gas flaring. The Nigeria Flared Gas Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP), seeks to reverse this trend.

Gasflaretracker.ng, a website that promotes advocacy against gas flaring in Nigeria estimated the following totals per year, 333.56 Mscf, which amounts to $783.80 million and unpaid fines of $1.10 billion. The group put power generation potential of flared gas at 27, 091.10 GWh and carbon dioxide emission at 17 million tonnes.

DPR’s report shows Nigeria currently flares about 11 per cent of its gas production, bringing Nigeria to seventh biggest gas flaring nation in the world.

The volume of gas flared is substantial and the wasted resource is capable of providing millions of Nigerian homes, as well as industrial areas with electricity access yearly. Apart from these alternative socio-economic resourcefulness of otherwise flared gas, flaring has been proven to have serious consequences on environmental health and social impacts in local communities in the Niger Delta and beyond.

These include respiratory illnesses, acid rain and corrosion of roofs, among others. The alternative social-economic uses available for flared gas, alongside the need to curb negative environmental, social and economic impacts of gas flaring have made executing a national strategy for gas flare commercialisation necessary.

STEPHEN ONYEKWELU