The implementation of stiffer monetary penalty against perpetrators of gas flare will substantially reduce the menace in Nigeria, a former Deputy Director of the defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR), Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola, has said. He reiterated that the high penalty would be a deterrent to companies involved in gas flare as they will find it more expensive to pay the penalty than to establish mechanisms that will make them either reduce or stop flaring gas. He spoke in an interview with New Telegraph over the weekend.
Recall that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, Abbas, had while inaugurating the Ad hoc Committee to investigate Nigeria’s national revenue loss and other impacts of gas flaring in the country, said Nigeria was losing about $2.5 billion annually to gas flaring. He described gas flaring as one of the most harmful practices in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, adding that the practice had for years been a significant environmental, economic, health and social concern in the country.
He added that gas flaring was a major contributor to climate change and environmental degradation, a tremendous waste of valuable resources, and has negative impacts on soil, water, and wildlife. He noted that the flared gas was a resource that could have been put to veritable use in electricity generation, heating and industrial processes. Abbas said: “The task before this ad hoc committee is a very critical one that lies at th.
