Nigeria - New Gas Flaring Deadline.

Abuja in March proposed pushing back its deadline to end gas flaring to 2010 to allow time for the development of the gas sector. Oil companies were supposed to have stopped all gas flaring in Nigeria by end-2008 or face hefty fines. But the deadline had passed without any companies being punished. The firms had said that was not realistic and urged Abuja to move the deadline to 2010. Nigeria flares more gas than any other country except Russia, burning about 2,500 MCF/d because there is not enough infrastructure to make use of it.

Environmentalists say gas flares burn day and night from most onshore oilfields in the delta, a waste of resources which causes a health hazard to nearby communities and contributes to global warming. As part of its Gas Master Plan, Abuja has invited IOCs to help it build three gas gathering plants and pipelines to provide enough supplies to Nigeria's ailing power sector. Shell, Total, Gazprom and several others have expressed interest in developing the gas sector. Most of the country's 150m residents go without mains electricity for weeks at a time, forcing them to rely on expensive gasoline-powered generators (see down5NigrEnBaseAug3-09).

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