GAS FLARING AND THE PROSPECT OF NIGERIA'S GREEN ENERGY POLICY
Introduction
Gas
flaring occurs when gas is produced as a by-product of oil extraction. When
natural gas is brought to the surface but cannot be easily used, it is burned
for disposal or “burned”. Without the infrastructure to put this “companion
gas” to effective use, it simply explodes (Thurber, 2019). “When you drill for oil, you also get gas. In
an ideal world, this associated gas would be sold to consumers, or it would be
used to generate power and then resold as electricity. But this requires costly
investment into pipelines, power plants, and other infrastructure. Therefore,
in practice, some oil producers opt to sell the oil and burn the gas. This is
known as gas flaring” (Ibrahim and Friedrichs 2013).
Gas Flaring in
Nigeria
Gas
burning is a typical disaster with varying effects on the country, especial the
Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Consequent upon this, there is a growing public
criticism towards its continued practice. The criticism is aimed at raising
awareness for the well-being of the host communities of oil stations in the
Niger Delta, and of the impact of gas burning. In the Niger Delta in Nigeria,
gas outbreaks are often remarkably close to inhabitants and farm lands. These are
associated with severe environmental degradation of the area (Edino et al.
2010).Oil-related gas burning continues to have implicit environmental and
energy consequences for Nigeria's sustainability efforts. This calls for
immediate diversification of the nation’s power sector.
The Prospect
The
National Energy Policy (NEP) was introduced due to the apparent failure of the
previous gas burning law. The main objectives of this policy are; (i) phase out
gas burning by 2008 (ii) create an eco-friendly and economic activity,
replacing oil for gas (Journal of Environment and Earth Science).
NEP has been effective in increasing investment in the energy sector,
diversifying the country's energy structure, create conditions to increase
energy supply in the economy, increase energy efficiency, improve capacity
building and awareness raising about the importance of the energy sector (Bala
2014).
Contrary
to the aforementioned achievements, the NEP failed to achieve its goal of
phasing out gas burning for several reasons; (i) Insecurity (ii) Lack of
government financial capacity (iii) Lack of political will and corruption (iv)
Lack of infrastructure. It is very appalling that although Nigeria is one of the
resource-rich countries in the world, it is often poorly governed, punctuated
with poor economic growth, and poor infrastructural development as compared to ‘resource-poor
countries’. One manifestation of the resource curse in Nigeria is poor national
governance (Ibrahim and Friedrichs 2013). The prospect of having a green energy
economy as part of the energy and power revolution in Nigeria is very slim.
Government is interested in making billions of dollars from crude oil
exploration without any thought out plan to evolve the energy and power sector
in Nigeria.
Conclusion
The
biggest challenge of the National Energy Policy is its policy implementation. The
Nigerian economy is highly dependent on oil revenues. Therefore, policies that
do not consider oil profits are not welcomed by the powers that be (Journal of Environment and Earth Science).
The diversification of the Nigerian energy plan to the green power as done in
modern societies is challenged and defeated by the age-long traditional methods
of administration, and the conservative idiosyncrasies of the leaders. However,
while the Nigerian economy may suffer from power failure, it is worthy to note
that gas flaring in the Niger Delta region of the country
has continuously endanger the lives of both plants and animals in the region.
Also, the health hazards it has posed on the inhabitants of the region cannot
be overemphasized. There is the need for government to look towards evolving
the energy sector, and the green energy could be a sure bet for the nation.
STATE CODE: OS/22C/1663
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