NNPC/TotalEnergies JV achieves zero routine gas flare

In pursuit of meeting 20 per cent unconditional and 47 per cent conditional greenhouse gas emission reduction targets contained in the Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Accord signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture (JV) has achieved zero routine gas flare across its assets.

Yesterday, a joint team from NNPC Ltd and TotalEnergies announced the achievement during an inspection tour of OML 100, located in the South-eastern Niger Delta, off Port Harcourt, aimed at assessing the progress of the operating mining lease (OML) Flare Reduction Project.

The NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies JV, which is the concession holder of four leases, had achieved zero routine flaring across OML 99 (2006), OML 102 (2014), and OML 58 (2016), leaving OML 100 as the only lease with routine flaring still ongoing.

According to NNPCL Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, the significance of the achievement is that the last routine flare volume of about 12 million standard cubic feet per day (12MMscf/d) of gas has been eliminated, giving rise to a greenhouse gas emission reduction of about 341KtCO₂e/yr.

He said the achievement was an outcome of a programme introduced by the NNPC Ltd to galvanise action towards achieving the zero routine flare by 2030 across its portfolio of assets.

“It is also a testament to NNPCL’s prioritisation of sustainability anchored on the ‘first R’ of its 5R strategy (reduce, replace, renew, re-plant, repurpose) as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint.

“Work is ongoing across all other assets within NNPCL’s Upstream Directorate to ensure that all assets achieve zero routine flaring by 2030 or earlier,” he said.