The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke and leaders of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) Thursday refused to honour the invitation of the
joint House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream & Upstream) and Gas Resources.
The meeting was meant to forestall the planned nationwide strike by the aforementioned unions.
But the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Joseph Dawah, who also didn't show up described the lingering crisis is “an internal affair”.
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Africa’s biggest crude exporter, Nigeria has been making frenetic efforts, setting and shifting deadlines to end gas flaring over the years. The country’s unsuccessful attempts to end the hazard, despite deadlines, dates back to 1969, when General Yakubu Gowon ordered oil companies to end gas flaring by 1974. After four decades, records from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) indicate that the country is still flaring about 24 per cent of its 7.8 billion cubic feet gas wells production per day, worth an estimated $2.5 billion annually, due to lack of infrastructure to harness the gas.
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Of concern, is the revelation by the international oil companies (IOCs), that they may continue to flare substantial amount of the gas resources in the country until 2020 which, according to them, is the feasible year for the flare out deadline. The IOCs argue that it takes money to utilize this gas and the government needs to pay its own share of it since they are in joint ventures with government.
Read more @ Businessday
