Oil and Gas

Biography

Biography: Solomon O. Giwa

Abstract

Unabated gas flaring in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is of local and global concern and contributes considerably to climate change and global warming due to the release of greenhouse gases. This paper presents an inventory of the CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere via gas flaring in Nigeria from 1965 to 2013, which is lacking before now. The data utilized in this study were sourced from national agency for information on gas production, utilization and flaring in Nigeria. This work was carried out based on Association of Petroleum Institute compendium of GHG emissions estimation for the oil and gas industry. From this present study, it was estimated that 1.87 × 109 tons of CO2 were released into the region through the flaring of 895.01 billion cubic metre of gas (55.6% of total gas produced) in Nigeria for a period of 49 years. The average yearly emission of CO2 (38.1 million tons) obtained in this study is slightly higher than the 35 million tons of CO2 previously reported in literature. Using Tier 2 approach, the uncertainty associated with the estimated CO2 emission was in the range -85.02% and 54.46%. The homogeneity test conducted for the CO2 emissions estimated from the satellite and national agency data on gas flaring in Nigeria showed that they are statistically equal. Conclusively, increased domestic utilization and export development of natural gas in the country is important to reducing gas flaring and its associated emissions.