Shell to attain 80% reduction in gas flaring by 2015

With three new gas projects namely, Forcados -Yokri, Adibawa and Otumara-Saghara, set be streamed urgently, Shell Petroleum Development Corporation (SPDC) has indicated its willingness to achieve more than 80 per cent gas flare in its mining concession by 2015.

Ubaka Emelumadu, Director, Gas, SPDC, who spoke at the 32nd Annual International Conference and Exhibition of Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) held in Lagos over the weekend, said the project is expected to end gas flares-out and, at the same time, monetise Nigeria’s abundant gas resources.

Emelumadu, in his presentation titled, ‘Obstacles to Developing Gas Infrastructure in Nigeria’, explained that SPDC Joint Ventures (JV) has made good progress by successfully reducing volume of gas flared as well as gas flaring intensity by 60 per cent over the last decade.

“While this means less threat to the environment, it also means more gas infrastructure for the country and increase in gas sales to the domestic economy. In the next one year, more of SPDC JV gas flares-out projects (Forcados Yokri, Adibawa and Otumara/Saghara) will come on stream as we intend to achieve more than 80 per cent reduction by 2015,” he said.

He said Nigeria ranks next to Russia as the country with the highest record of gas flaring, adding that since 2000, there has been progress made in flares reduction while the industry has seen a year on year reduction that trails SPDC, which has been reducing flares by 12 per cent faster than the industry average.

According to him, attention paid on small associated gas gathering infrastructure in the past proved expensive and presented some challenges because the rate of return on INVESTMENT was not competitive compared to development of huge reserves or oil development.

He acknowledged that Nigeria and other stakeholders have made considerable progress in reducing gas flaring in the past decade, surpassing countries like Russia and Iraq, with Shell playing a key role to attain zero flare in the country.

Source: dailyindependenet