Published February 11, 2021
Nigeria lost an estimated N 189 . 90 bn from January to November 2020 as international oil companies and local players flared a total of 178. 95 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas.
The oil companies wasted 19 . 95 billion scf of gas in January; 18 .27 billion scf in February ; 19 . 71 billion scf in March ; 17 .90 billion scf in April , and 15 .07 billion scf in May , according to data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation .
A total of 14 . 19 billion scf was flared in June; 14 . 15 billion scf in July ; 13 .62 billion scf in August ; 14 .79 billion scf in September; 13 .98 billion scf in October, and 17 . 32 billion scf in November .
With the price of natural gas put at $ 2 .80 per 1 , 000scf as of Wednesday , the 178 . 95 billion scf flared translates to an estimated loss of $ 501 .06 m or N 189. 90 bn ( using the official exchange rate of N 379 / dollar ) .
The NNPC in its latest monthly financial and operations report said a total of 222 . 34 billion scf of natural gas was produced in November , translating to an average daily production of 7. 41 billion standard cubic feet per day .
It said , “ For the period November 2019 to November 2020 , a total of 3 ,004 . 06 BCF of gas was produced , representing an average daily production of 7, 642 .69 mmscfd during the period.
“ Out of this volume , production from Joint Ventures accounted for 67 .29 per cent , Production Sharing Contracts accounted for 19 . 97 per cent , while the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company accounted for 12 .74 per cent . ”
A further breakdown showed that a total of 137 . 41 billion scf of gas was commercialised, consisting of 39 .99 billion scf and 97 . 42 billion scf for the domestic and export market respectively.
The report said , “ This translates to a total supply of 1 .33 billion scfd of gas to the domestic market and 3 . 25 billion scfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month.
“ This implies that 62 .55 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised while the balance of 37 .45 per cent was re -injected , used as upstream fuel gas or flared . Gas flare rate was 7 . 89 per cent for the month under review translating to 577 .39 mmscfd. ”
It said a total of 789 million scfd was delivered to gas -fired power plants in November to generate an average power of about 3 ,358 megawatts , compared with October when an average of 750 million scfd was supplied .
According to the revised payment regime for gas flaring , oil firms producing 10 , 000 barrels of oil or more per day will pay $ 2 per 1 , 000 standard cubic feet of gas, compared to N 10 per 1 ,000 scf in the past .
Firms producing less than 10 ,000 barrels of oil per day will pay a gas flare penalty of $ 0 .5 per 1 ,000 scf .