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… Writes NASS, other regulatory agencies
A non-governmental organization (NGO) in the Niger Delta has raised a petition to the National Assembly and other organization over what it calls $500m annual loss in gas flaring alone. The group, Healthy Life Development Initiative (HELDi), led by Mfon Utin, it is pained by the loss which she said would add to new risks arising from the European Union (EU) over insufficient methane regulation.
In the memorandum sent the NASS and other regulators in the hydrocarbon industry (and a copy available made available to BusinessDay), HELDi said insufficient methane regulation has also placed Nigeria at risk of incurring up to 35% carbon tariffs on liguefied natural gas (LNG) exports to the European Union by 2026.
Utin, Programme Coordinator for HELDi, outlined what she called 11 urgent and actionable reforms to close legal, regulatory, and institutional loopholes in methane governance within the oil and gas sector.
The memo warned that failure to act decisively by the first quarter of 2026 could trigger further divestment by international investors (e.g., BP, Eni) citing ESG non-compliance. It said this could result in the loss of 300 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas annually, enough to power a state as large as Lagos for 18 months.
The memo also said this could lead to a breach of Nigeria’s commitment under the Global Methane Pledge.
The key risks were mentioned as legal ambiguity that may lead to conflicting claims over flare gas ownership between Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) threaten regulatory coherence and increase the risk of litigation.
The memorandum blamed the crisis in the gas flare aspect of the industry on what HELDi called ineffective penalties as existing fines (currently at $0.12/m³) are significantly below international benchmarks (of $1.80/m³ in the EU). Utin said this has effectively enabled non-compliance.
HELDi was part of other non-state organisations that reviewed the gas flare challenges in Nigeria’s hydrocarbon industry and the harms it has continued to pose to the nation.
They seemed alarmed that new regulations in Europe may catch Nigeria by surprise and cause huge annual losses.
