NIGERIAN GAS FLARING FACT SHEET

1. How much gas is flared in Nigeria?

More gas is flared in Nigeria than anywhere else in the world. The gas industry statistics publisher, Cedigaz, indicates that Nigeria accounted for 19.79% of global flaring in 2001 (latest year), more than the second (Iran) and third (Indonesia) countries combined: see Statistical Leaflet available here: www.cedigaz.org.

The UNDP/World Bank in 2004 estimated Nigerian flaring at close to 2.5 billion cubic feet daily (over 70 million cubic metres daily), amounting to about 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004), paragraph 2.5.

2. Some of the effects of flaring in Nigeria

The cocktail of toxic substances which has been emitted in the flares for over 40 years, including benzene and particulates, has exposed Niger Delta communities to health risks and property damage, in violation of their human rights. The flares affect their livelihood and expose them to an increased risk of premature deaths, child respiratory illnesses, asthma and cancer, as well as acid rain. For example, conservative assumptions using World Bank information on the adverse effect of particulates, suggests that gas flaring from just one part of the Niger Delta (Bayelsa State) would likely cause annually 49 premature deaths, 4,960 respiratory illnesses among children and 120, asthma attacks.

This exposure violates Nigerian constitutional guarantees, for example, of the fundamental rights to life (Article 33) and to dignity (Article 34). It also violates the rights guaranteed in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, for example, of every individual to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health (Article 16) and of all peoples to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development (Article 24).

Flaring in the country "has contributed more greenhouse gas emissions than all other sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined" according to the World Bank. Memorandum of the President of the International Development Association and the International Finance Corporation to the Executive Directors on an Interim Strategy Update for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, February 13, 2002, Report No. 23633-UNI, paragraph 15.

The UNDP/World Bank figure of 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide would have made Nigeria the world's 42nd biggest emitter of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and cement manufacture in 2000, ahead of Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. This ranking is obtained from the World Resources Institute's Climate Analysis Indicators Tool, available here: http://cait.wri.org.

3. What's the cost of gas flaring in Nigeria?

The annual financial loss to Nigeria from gas flared has been put at about US $2.5 billion:

"[F]laring represents a significant economic loss (lost opportunity value estimated at some US$2.5 billion, based on LNG values)."
Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004), page 13, paragraph 1.13.

At the same time, about two-thirds of the population are estimated by the World Bank to live on less than US $1 a day:

"GNP per capita, at about US$320, is below the level at independence forty years ago and below the US$370 that it gained in 1985. About 66 percent of the population now falls below the poverty line of roughly one U.S. dollar a day, compared to 43 percent in 1985."
World Bank Nigeria Country Briefing, April 2005

4. What do the regulations say?

Apart from human rights law, flaring has been in general prohibited under environmental regulations since 1st January 1984, unless a ministerial consent has been lawfully issued and conditions are complied with. Under section 3 of the Associated Gas Reinjection Act 1979, a consent can only be issued if the Minister is satisfied that utilization or reinjection is not appropriate or feasible in a particular field or fields. If a consent is issued, the Minister is empowered to require the companies to pay a sum (reported in 2002 to be 10 Naira per million cubic feet (about 4 UK pence or 7 US cents), and under the Associated Gas Re-injection (Continued Flaring of Gas) Regulations 1984 certain conditions must be met. Despite requests by Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, no consents or conditions have been disclosed by any of the companies.

Fact Sheet produced by the Climate Justice Programme and Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, June 2005