By A. M. Nasiru.
The member representing Ankpa, Omala and Olamaboro federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims has called for strong legislations against unaccounted gas flaring.
The lawmaker made the call while moving a motion of urgent national importance on the need to check activities of oil companies operating in Nigeria that flares gas, fail to declare accurate volumes of gas flared, and thus evade payment of gas flare penalties under the laws of Nigera to reduce and eliminate gas flaring through monetization and investment in the gas flare ecosystem.
Further more, Rep Halims who is Chairman of the House Committee on Steel Development, said “alarmed that the loss to Nigeria might be higher when the penalties that may accrue from venting are determined and added to the money accruable from penalties of flared gas discrepancies and other losses in terms of power generation foregone which is now estimated at 98GWh”.
After debate, the House unanimously resolved to investigate the gas flare volume reported by the Nigerian Government and the NOSDRA Gas Flare Tracker and ascertain the amount of gas flared and extent of the discrepancies therein.
The House also resolved to ascertain and recover the amount of revenue due to government from gas flare penalties and put in place measures to eliminate gas flare volume discrepancies in Nigeria.
