…Seek expansion of oil & gas FTZs
From Ndubuisi Orji and Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
The House of Representatives yesterday, mandated its Committees on Gas Resources, Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to interface with Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on how to actualise 2020 date to end gas flaring in the country.
The committees are expected to report back to the House within eight weeks for further legislative action. This followed a motion on need to stop gas flaring in the country, moved by Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma at yesterday’s plenary.
In his lead debate, Agbonayinma said gas flaring poses a lot of problems to both the economy of the nation and the environment, stressing that gas flaring has also caused so much death and environmental degradation in the country.
Agbonayinma added that, “according to data obtained from the World Bank, Nigeria ranks second among countries that are the largest gas flaring nations in the world, as the country emits over $4 billion worth of gas annually.”
The lawmaker, who noted that the gas being flared could be deployed to better use, stated that figures obtained from the DPR indicate that “gas flared in 2015 alone was capable of generating about 3,500MW of electricity or an equivalent of three trains of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), representing a loss of over $1 billion revenue or over 60 million barrels of oil equivalent.
He noted that there was need for the petroleum ministry, the DPR and International Oil Companies (IOCs) to work assiduously to end gas flaring in the country by 2020.
Meanwhile, the House has passed for second reading a Bill for an Act to Repeal and Re-enact the Oil and Gas Export Free Zone Authority Act to Provide for the Designation and Establishment of Oil and Gas Free Zones and Special Investment Areas in Nigeria. The bill also includes an amendment for the establishment of the Oil and Gas Investment and Free Zones Authority.