TotaEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, has achieved zero routine gas flare in all its assets, Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPCL), announced on Thursday. This makes the French oil giant to be the first upstream company to have stopped routine flaring from all its facilities in the country.
The anouncement was made during an inspection tour of OML 100 in South-eastern Niger Delta, off Port Harcourt, by a joint NNPC Ltd and TotalEnergies team to ascertain the success of the OML flare reduction project launched in December 2023.
NNPC, said in a statement issued in Abuja by its spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, that the development is in line with NNPC’s motive to galvanise action towards achieving the zero routine flare by 2030 across its portfolio of assets.
“The NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies joint venture, which is the concession holder of four leases, had hitherto achieved zero routine flaring across OML 99 (2006), OML 102 (2014), and OML 58 (2016), leaving OML 100 as the only lease with routine flaring going on.
“The significance of this achievement is that the last routine flare volume of about 12MMscf/d (12 million standard cubic feet per day) of gas has now been eliminated giving rise to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 341KtCO2e/yr.” Soneye said.
“It is also a testament to NNPC Ltd’s prioritisation of sustainability anchored on the ‘first R’ of its 5R strategy (Reduce, Replace, Renew, Re-plant, Repurpose), as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint.
“Work is ongoing across all other assets within NNPC Ltd’s upstream directorate to ensure that all assets achieve zero routine flaring by 2030 or earlier,” the oil firm stated.
The achievement, as stated by Managing Director, TotalEnergies Nigeria, Mr. Matthieu Bouyer, is important to both the company and the country as it will reduce emissions and increase production.
He said, “The objective of this project is double; Reduce our emissions: our Company objective is to fully stop routine flaring in the Company by 2030. On that standpoint we are in advance in Nigeria since we stopped end 2023. Increase energy production: by stopping routine flaring, we are able to valorize the gas, thereby creating value for the country.”
Routine flare-out is the stoppage of continuous gas flaring above the nominal safety capacity of an oil and gas facility.
Nigeria, has recorded both progress and challenges in its efforts to reduce gas flaring. In terms of progress, Nigeria reduced gas flaring by around 70 per cent between 2000 and 2018 and has implemented various policy initiatives to promote gas sector development and gas utilisation.
However, the country’s goal of ending routine flaring by 2020 was not achieved, flaring often occurs in remote areas, making gas utilisation projects expensive. Also, unstable domestic gas demand and limited access to electricity hinder gas project viability, serving as a hinderance for attracting investments for gas utilisation projects.
Nigeria has however, acknowledged the beed for more action and it is making efforts to revise its gas strategy.
