OUGHELLI, Delta State, Nigeria (Reuters) – Jonah Gbemre has no electricity, but says his space is permanently lit at night through “burnt” waste gas flames near his hometown in Nigeria’s Delta state.
Like Gbemre, almost a portion of Nigerians do not have a solid-strength supply, yet government attempts to exploit the fuel sputum of their oil fields to generate electricity or a urgently needed source of revenue have stagnated.
And experts say that without progress towards its 2030 purpose of virtually getting rid of burning, which releases carbon dioxide with polluting methane and soot, Nigeria cannot meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse fuel emissions by 20%.
Chart: CO2 and Nigeria emissions: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/xklvyqmljvg/chart. png
“This torch turns nights into days,” said Gbemre, 42, with bloodshot, milky eyes, which his doctor attributes to burning residual gases.
Reuters may simply not identify whether there is a link between Gbemre’s eye disorders and the torch. Nigeria’s national oil spill detection and reaction firm said the practice could harm human health and the environment.
After sunset, nearly two hundred lit torches dot the landscape around Port Harcourt, Delta’s oil hub. Experts say Nigeria’s burning fuel in the country can be worth billions of dollars if captured and transported for use as liquefied herbal fuel or as fuel. plastic or fertilizer.
Chart: Nigeria’s price increase in millions of dollars in lost revenue: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/ygdvzkneypw/chart. png
But a Nigerian government program in 2016 to resolve the auction of rights to capture and sell burning fuel is struggling, six sources close to the procedure told Reuters.
The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated delays in an allocation that the World Bank hoped would serve as an example in its attempt to reduce global warming through an international call until 2030.
All oil-producing countries burn gas, in remote fields, or where infrastructure is aging.
Chart: Top 30 Countries in Flare in 2019: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/yxmvjbjywvr/chart. png
Nigeria first focused on burning fuel in the 1970s and, through regimes and regulations, has halved it since 2001. Chevron, Shell and Eni, which operate in Nigeria, say they have reduced burning by about 90% and are working to decrease further. ExxonMobil and Total declined to comment.
Graphic: gas burned in the company’s box in 2018: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/xlbvgjwdjpq/chart. png
But while larger sites were operating, progress stataged and skyrocketed last year, according to government-run satellite tracking, while Gbemre has little confidence in the state, which says it lost its its in 2004, 2008 and 2020.
Although the Nigerian Petroleum Resources Department (DPR) approved two hundred bidders in February, it said in June, when the sites were assigned, that the procedure had been delayed for six weeks due to coronavirus restrictions.
“If this auction circular is unsuccessful, it’s the end,” said Gbite Adeniji, a lawyer who helped design the program as technical advisor to Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum, adding that it takes about $3 billion to market the remaining torches. prices ranging from $20 million to $100 million.
The sources, which did not need to be named because of the delicacy of the subject, stated that many bidders had already retired, as many were unlikely to accept their costs.
‘LACK OF TRUST’
Only 48 of the nearly 180 sites still burned in Nigeria are on the DPR list, many of them are not commercially viable and some of them are absent, they added.
“The pool is 3 times smaller than they thought,” said a fountain about the sites.
Gas production in some, where oil fields are in decline, is likely to end in five to 10 years and others are at sea, which makes the required infrastructure more more more important, resources added.
The DPR did not respond to a request for comment on how it decided the flare sites, when it will announce the winners, or whether it participated in the bidding process.
Two bidders told Reuters that they had withdrawn this year because the delays had led them to Nigeria’s commitment.
Oneal Lajuwomi, Executive Leader of Wavelength, said his energy company had spent $20,000, but it was not worth investing more money, deterred by what he said were poor data, adding the fuel produced and how long it would last.
“How do you verify the economic viability of the allocation if you don’t know those things?The challenge for us and many others was a lack of trust,” Lajuwomi said.
Delays harm bidders, who will have to review the schedule with their funders and make costly reviews of feasibility studies to remain in conflict.
A bidder still in the proceedings and some other close source said the DPR’s silence had frightened some funders who were discouraged by the unpredictable timetable and had less liquidity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The appeals indicated that the DPR and the Oil Minister had used their legal authority to grant “exemptions” to the sites, possibly saving them from being auctioned.
Neither the DPR nor the Ministry of Petroleum responded to requests for comment on this matter.
‘NO MONEY’
The World Bank said it was not concerned about the supply or variety of flare sites, adding that Nigeria, along with Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Indonesia and Iraq, had made progress.
Graphic: Burning in Nigeria has declined considerably: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/jznvnljowvl/chart. png
However, observers said Nigeria’s energy sector, combined with the location and length of some sites, made it almost for an investor to make money by promoting gas, even though electricity tariffs more or less doubled.
“It will become increasingly difficult to completely eliminate eruptions, as many of them are small,” said Gail Anderson, director of ascendant studios at Wood Mackenzie, adding, “Many of them are in remote locations. “
Renaissance Capital analyst Nikolas Stefanou echoed the unrest in the energy sector and said other buyers were too small.
“The challenge is to locate a real source of demand well,” Stefanou said.
And while state oil company NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum have announced plans to increase the call for fuel-based fuels, such as liquefied petroleum fuel (LPG), DPR and a subsidiary of a national oil company have also added tariffs. .
These disorders make it difficult to track buyers for those hoping to make money from weeded fuel.
Back in Ughelli, a 20-foot wall of burning fuel sends heat waves over Root Ohoteka and 4 of his sons, who uses the maximum temperature to dry the cassava flakes, which he sells.
The intense heat speeds up the process, however, the 25-year-old told Reuters that she would rather find another way to feed her circle of relatives because she is involved in the effects of fumes on her health.
“If I had money, I’d stop. But there’s no money. “
(Additional report via Tife Owolabi in the Delta state and Benjamin Mallet in Paris, edited by Simon Webb, Veronica Brown and Alexander Smith)
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