THE DOWNSIDE OF GAS FLARING

Gas flaring is the process by which unusual or excess natural gas is released by a pressure valve and burned, releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is a usual practice of by oil companies during production; a weapon of mass destruction.

The former minister of Petroleum Resources and Alternate President of the OPEC conference, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke, had at a point in time in an address to the 7th National Assembly proposed a bill to eliminate gas flaring in Nigeria.

Also known as Associated Gas (AG), gas flaring, has been illegal since 1984 and the Nigerian Government has set up several deadlines to end this practice which unfortunately continues to this day. Research has shown that Russia and Nigeria flare the highest amount of Natural gas. Flaring of natural gas in Nigeria has bumped out about 110 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, about 0.5% of the world's carbon dioxide emission.

Mr. Nnimon Bassey, a prominent environmentalist and a member of the committee on environment at the National Conference recently stated "Nigeria loses about two billion dollars (320million naira) to gas flaring yearly, though economically flagrant, the practice is also environmentally criminal". Gas burned and flared into the air has a detrimental impact on public health and well being. This gas that is being flared in the oil fields according to the Healthcare Needs Assessment Programme equally impacts human health as it causes acid rain; due to the release of oxides, nitrogen and sulfur into the atmosphere, acid rain is formed as a result of a mixture of these gases with moisture. The effect of Acid rain is acidification of lakes and streams and also destroys vegetations, damages structures and reduces visibility.

Climate change is particularly serious amongst developing countries like Nigeria because of the high vulnerability and limited ability to adapt to the effects of climate change such as scarcity of water resources, decline in agricultural productions, spread of pests and diseases especially vector and water borne, possible flooding, sea level rise in coastal areas as can be seen in oil producing areas like the Niger-Delta, as well as desertification due to intensified land use.

According to the US EPA, "Nigeria disposes natural gas by process of drilling for oil through burning, emitting particular matter (smoke) sulfur and nitrogen oxides, benz cyprene and dioxin and unburned fuel components such as toluene, benzene and xylene. These components lead to significant health problems such as Asthma, Chronic Bronchitis, Cancer, breathing problem, acute non lymphocytic leukemia and a variety of other blood related disorder in humans and possibly premature death.
The act, has reduced due to the potential energy use and commercialization of the associated gas and has led more oil extracting companies to devise means to trap and channel the gas energy and also due to more awareness of the significant health and environmental effect it produce as well as because of the high volume of carbon dioxide emitted during flaring which is a major driver of climate change.

A bill proposed that gas flaring should be brought to an end because of the monumental waste of resources especially in a country like Nigeria where energy demand surpasses supply and where over 70% of the populations still live in abject poverty. The extent of environmental degradation that gas flaring causes is enormous and therefore stopping gas flaring will reduce the environmental health effect.

Although flaring has been legally banned in Nigeria since 1984, measures to enforce the ban have been lack luster. NGO’s  and environmental organizations for instance, point towards the fact that fines for flaring are much too low per cubic meter to deter companies from burning gas. Under such circumstances, there is little incentive for entrepreneurs to make the huge infrastructural investments required for commercialization of gas flaring in this context, makes perfect sense from a business point of view. It is simply one aspect of Nigeria’s dysfunctional inequality and fragile energy wastage.

Another significant effect of gas flaring according to an annual report of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is its contribution to climate change. The burning of fossil fuels, mainly coal, oil and gas has led to warming up of the world and is expected to get worse.

THIS ARTICLE IS RELATED TO
The Natifz Times Newspaper
Volume one Number four. At pg.7
By: Abosede Blessing
busolamibose@gmail.com.