The World Bank has applauded efforts by successive administration in Nigeria to ensure drastic reduction in gas flaring by international oil companies.
The apex bank said the country had made significant progress in flare reduction since observations began, in no small part.
The global bank in its 2022 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report (GGFR), which was made available to our correspondent yesterday, said the feat was due to the commissioning and startup of several major projects to recover and export associated gas, including associated gas processing and export via the Bonny Liquefied Natural Gas plant.
This came as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) yesterday increased Nigeria’s crude oil production quota by 19,000 oil production quota by 19000 barrels per day in June 2022.
According to the report, “flaring intensity has, however, increased as production has declined over the last 10 years.
“The satellite data suggests that while the largest flaring fields have been addressed, there remain many smaller, more disparate fields where flare elimination and gas utilization is more challenging.
“This issue is not unique to Nigeria and is likely to be experienced by many other oil-producing countries as they advance efforts to eliminate routine flaring.”
The report recalled that in 2021, the top 10 flaring countries (on an absolute volume basis) accounted for 75 per cent of all gas flaring and 50 per cent of global oil production.
It noted that “seven of the top 10 flaring countries has held this position consistently for the last 10 years: Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Venezuela, Algeria, and Nigeria.
The remaining three; Mexico, Libya, and China, have shown significant flaring increases in recent years.
“When we consider flaring intensity, fragile, conflict affected, and insecure countries, such as Venezuela, Syria, and Yemen are among the worst performers, flaring more gas per barrel of oil produced than any other country.
The intensity perspective also suggests there are opportunities to improve flaring performance in oil-producing countries such as Algeria, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Turkmenistan.
“Considering again the top 10 flaring countries on a volume basis, Russia, Iraq, the United States, Nigeria, and Mexico have all committed to the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaringby2030(ZRF) Initiative, which commits governments and companies to (a) not routinely flare gas in any new oil field development, and (b) to end routine flaring in existing oil fields as soon as possible and no later than 2030. However, over the past decade, only the United States has successfully improved the flaring intensity of its oil production.”
A Foreward to the report by the Program Manager, Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, Zubin Bamji, pointed out that “2021 was yet another turbulent year fort the oil and gas industry, with rising oil prices, tight oil and gas markets, high energy prices, and the ongoing recovery from Covid-19.
“Our team at the World Bank will continue to support this effort, especially in developing countries, and work closely with governments and oil companies to overcome the barriers to flaring reduction,” the global bank noted. Meanwhile, Nigeria has received the approval of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) to increase its crude oil production quota by 19,000 barrels per day in June 2022. The cartel raised the country’s quota from 1.753mb/d in May to 1.772mb/d inJune, upping it up by 1.8 per cent. In Africa, Nigeria got the approval for the production of the highest volume of crude oil in the month.
The organization disclosed this in a statement on its28th OPECandnon-OPEC ministerial meeting. The statement, however, noted that Angola is to produce 1.480mb/d. Saudi Arabia and Russia got approval to produce 10.663mb/d each in June. From the production schedule, OPEC 10 are to produce 25.864mb/d while Non-OPEC are to churn out 16.694mb/d, totally 42.558mb/d that the OPEC+ has planned to produce in June.
