Falling oil revenue: We must end gas flaring says RMAFC boss
Faced with dwindling oil revenue, which has threatened 2020 federal and state governments’ budgets, Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, Engr Elias Mbam, has called for an end to gas flaring in the country.
He said that gas flaring was denying the nation huge revenue and that there should be more development of the gas infrastructure with a view to harnessing the resource and turning it into cash.
Experts claimed 223 billion Standard Cubic Feet of gas was flared in Nigeria, between January and June, this year, in a country of about 200 million people with power supply put at a mere 3, 000 to 5,000 MW.
Mbam in a statement by RMAFC spokesman, Mr Nwachukwu Christian, said, “The potentials of gas to revenue generation is enormous and needs to be properly exploited.”
According to Mbam, the continuous flaring of gas in the country was against the interest of the nation.
He said, “Nigeria as a nation is blessed with an abundance of gas deposits measuring more than two trillion cubic tons thereby, making it to be the ninth largest country in gas reserves in the world.
“In line with the current dwindling revenue from oil, gas economy could be a safe haven for the country as Nigeria could generate more than one billion dollars annually from the sector if only relevant stakeholders could do the needful as stated.”
He noted that against the health hazard posed to the oil producing communities, flared gas in Nigeria could be converted and channelled to the economy where more than two million people could be employed, while being utilized for industrial purposes such as power generation.
Today.ng
Discussion about this post