An estimated N53.26bn was lost by Nigeria in the first two months of 2021 as international oil companies and local players flared a total of 33.04 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas.
This was with the oil companies wasting 17.53 billion scf of gas in February, compared to 15.51 billion scf in January, according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
This was contained in the NNPC’s latest monthly report, which said with the price of natural gas put at $3.93 per 1,000scf as of Wednesday, the 33.04 billion scf flared, translates to an estimated loss of $129.85m or N53.26bn (using the official exchange rate of N410.13/dollar).
The report also said out of the 206.05 billion scf produced in February, a total of 133.06 billion scf was commercialised, consisting of 40.15 billion scf and 92.91 billion scf for the domestic and export market respectively.
It said this implied that 64.48 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 35.52 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.
Gas flare rate was 7.67 per cent in February (i.e. 565.52 million standard cubic feet per day), compared to 7.73 per cent in January (i.e. 554.01 million scfd).
In January, a total of 223.55 billion scf of natural gas was produced, translating to an average daily production of 7,220.22 million scfd.
Out of the total gas output in January, a total of 149.24 billion scf was commercialised, consisting of 44.29 billion scf and 104.95 billion scf for the domestic and export markets respectively.
