- Flaring Falls to 7.16%
BY BONNY AMADI
Nigeria has achieved a rare energy milestone as gas flaring fell to 7.16 per cent in July, despite an increase in daily gas production to 7.59 billion standard cubic feet per day (BSCFD), the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said.
The NUPRC, in a statement on Saturday, said the simultaneous growth in output and decline in flaring underscores the commission’s drive to boost production while advancing its 2030 zero-flare commitment.
“Nigeria’s gas industry has sustained steady growth over the past three years with daily average production hitting 7.59 BSCFD in July 2025. This marks an 8.58 per cent increase compared to the 6.99 BSCFD recorded in the full year of 2024,” the NUPRC said.
According to the commission, the 7.59 BSCFD daily average also represents a 9.84 per cent increase from the 6.91 BSCFD posted in the full year of 2023, which shows a sustained rise in gas production.
Despite an increase in production, the commission also reported a continued reduction in gas flaring, which fell to 7.16 per cent in July 2025, down from 7.55 per cent in 2024 and 7.38 per cent in the corresponding period of 2023.
Gas flaring is the burning off of associated gas that comes together with oil during production. Over the years, oil companies have been using the option of burning the associated gas.
They have preferred flaring and paying meagre penalties to the government, rather than developing a structure to capture the gas and make it useful. Setting up such infrastructure would be more expensive, they have argued.
In 2016, the Nigerian government launched the National Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) to involve third-party investors or off-takers in harnessing gas released as a byproduct of oil production.
The programme was one of the government’s initiatives to drive the attainment of zero routine gas flaring by 2035 and net zero emissions by 2060 in the country.
The government said 226 companies submitted bids before the project was suspended at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In October 2022, the government announced the relaunch of the programme and opened bids.
In September 2023, the NUPRC announced the issuance of letters of award to 42 companies/entities deemed successful in the keenly contested bid for 49 flare sites put forward during the 2022 Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) auction process.
At the time, it said thirty-eight of the companies have been awarded forty flare sites for standalone single flare site development, while four are awarded nine sites to be developed as clusters.
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