The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it has put in place measures and facilities to curb gas flaring preparatory to the 2020 flare out deadline by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
A statement from the NNPC said its Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru made this submission during a one-day public hearing on Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill 2017, at the National Assembly in Abuja.
Baru who was represented by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Yusuf Matashi expressed NNPC’s strong support for the legislation to reduce gas flaring, adding that the Corporation considered the legislation from the financial benefits it promises to capture rather than seeing it from the point of view of penalty.
“NNPC supports the legislative intervention to prohibit gas flaring in line with global best practices, considering its negative impacts on the environment and the communities where the gas is flared. NPDC, the Exploration and Production arm of the Corporation, is going ahead to see that the monetization of flared gas is realized despite the challenges of the past,” Baru stated.
He informed that NPDC was the highest gas supplier to Nigerian domestic market and was therefore committed to the reduction and elimination of gas flaring to generate more revenue for the country.
Earlier, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Nallah, while declaring open the public hearing said the issue of gas flaring was a national embarrassment adding that the 8th Senate was committed to enacting a legislation that would end gas flaring in the country.
On his part, the Senate Committee Chairman on Gas, Senator Albert Bassey, stated that the Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill 2017 served as a legislative panacea to end gas flaring in the country.
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