Gas Flaring in Nigeria: What Can be Done to Curb It by Cynthia Ohaeri

GAS FLARING in Nigeria, the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction, has been a prevalent practice. Natural gas brought to the surface, especially where there is no infrastructure to put this “associated gas” to productive use is burnt for disposal thus making it a wasteful and generally polluting practice.

An economy that promotes carbon emission through flaring wastes valuable energy products, increases health disparities and fuels climate change, a far-cry from the Global United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 11 (Sustainable cities and communities, and 13 (Climate Action). We explore the effects and impact of Gas flaring.

To curb gas flaring there must be a unanimous alignment by all key stakeholders that gas flaring is an unsustainable process. We explore some notable solutions to reduce and eliminate the practice.