Gas Flaring in Nigeria: Opportunity for Household Cooking Utilization

Abstract

There is enough empirical evidence to support the notion that the flaring of associated gas in Nigeria by multinational oil firms contributes enormously to gaseous emissions and thermal radiation in Nigeria, especially in the Niger Delta region of the Country. The Federal government of Nigeria's efforts to stop gas flaring has been inadequate as deadlines handed down to oil companies over the years have failed to deter them from flaring gas. A total of 71 million m 3 of associated gas from oil exploration is flared on a daily basis without attracting attention from the media and the international community as against the recent British Petroleum (BP) saga in the United States which drew widespread attention from the media, the public and the shareholders of the company. The BP oil spill incident which was an accident forced BP into spending unbudgeted billions of dollars to appease the American people and to maintain the firm's integrity. Nigeria loses 2.5 billion dollars annually through gas flaring. Furthermore there are attendant environmental and socioeconomic impacts of gas flaring on the people living in the immediate environment where the gas is flared. In this paper household cooking gas, in form of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is proposed to reduce gas flaring and improve Nigeria's household cooking efficiency.