BudgIT Nigeria, a civic technology organization on Thursday said that Nigeria loses N2.5 billion annually to gas flaring. The organization, which aims to entrench transparency in government budgets, disclosed this in a statement issued by its Communication Lead, Abiola Afolabi, and made available to journalists in Abuja.
BudgIT charged the Federal Government to take action against the effects of gas flaring which continued to contribute to Nigeria’s environmental degradation. While commending the government on some progress made in the fight against routine gas flaring in the last 20 years, the organization revealed that an analysis carried out by its extractives team showed that the volume of gas produced increased by 91.13 per cent while the volume of gas flared reduced by only 38.06 per cent between 2001 and 2016.
“This implies that oil companies invested more money in gas production activities and are less concerned about sufficiently investing in technologies and infrastructure to control gas flaring. “What Nigeria has at the moment is potential for the consumption of un-flared gas. Therefore, the supply framework, infrastructure and market systems necessary for un-flared gas to reach its end users’ needs must be collectively and sustainably developed by all stakeholders,” the statement said. BudgIT tasked the government to explore existing technologies and strategies to reduce the amount of gas flared into the atmosphere.
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