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By Libby George
OUGHELLI, Delta State, Nigeria (Reuters) – Jonah Gbemre has no electricity, but says his space is permanently lit at night through “burnt” waste gas flames near his hometown in Nigeria’s Delta state.
Like Gbemre, almost a portion of Nigerians have a solid-strength supply, but the government’s attempts to harness fuel from its oil fields to generate electricity or urgently needed revenues have stagnated.
And experts say that without progress towards its 2030 purpose of virtually getting rid of burning, which releases carbon dioxide with polluting methane and soot, Nigeria cannot meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse fuel emissions by 20%.
(Chart: burns in Nigeria and CO2 emissions: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/xklvyqmljvg/chart. png)
“This call causes the nights to turn into days,” said Gbemre, 42, with bloodshot and milky eyes, which his doctor attributes to the burning of waste gas.
Reuters may simply not identify whether there is a link between Gbemre’s eye disorders and the torch. Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Response and Detection Agency said the practice could harm human health and the environment.
After sunset, nearly two hundred flashing rockets dot the landscape around Port Harcourt, Delta’s oil hub. Experts say the fuel burning Nigeria in the country can be worth billions of dollars if captured and transported for use as liquefied herbal fuel or as fuel. plastic or fertilizer.
(Chart – Rising Prices of Nigeria in Millions of Dollars in Lost Revenue: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/ygdvzkneypw/chart. png)
But a Nigerian government program in 2016 to resolve the auction of rights to capture and sell burning fuel is struggling, six sources close to the procedure told Reuters.
The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated delays in an allocation that the World Bank hoped would serve as an example in its attempt to reduce global warming through an international call until 2030.
All oil-producing countries burn gas, in remote fields, or where infrastructure is aging.
(Chart – The 30 countries with the highest call in 2019: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/yxmvjbjywvr/chart. png)
Nigeria first focused on burning fuel in the 1970s and, through regimes and regulations, has halved it since 2001. Chevron, Shell and Eni, which operate in Nigeria, say they have reduced burning by about 90% and are operating to decrease. More. ExxonMobil and Total declined to comment.
(Graphic: gas burned through the company’s box in 2018: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/xlbvgjwdjpq/chart. png)
But while larger sites were operating, progress stataged and skyrocketed last year, according to government-run satellite tracking, while Gbemre has little confidence in the state, which says it lost its its in 2004, 2008 and 2020.
Although the Nigerian Petroleum Resources Department (DPR) approved two hundred bidders in February, he said in June, when the sites were assigned, that the procedure had been delayed for six weeks due to coronavirus restrictions.
“If this auction circular fails, it’s the end,” said Gbite Adeniji, a lawyer who helped design the program as a technical advisor to Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum, adding that it takes about $3 billion to market the remaining torches, with prices ranging from $20 million to $100 million.
The sources, which did not need to be named because of the delicacy of the subject, stated that many bidders had already retired because many were unlikely to take up their costs.
‘LACK OF CONFIDENCE’
Only 48 of the nearly 180 sites still burned in Nigeria are on the DPR list, many of them are not commercially viable and some of them are absent, they added.
“The pool is 3 times smaller than they thought,” said a fountain about the sites.
Gas production in some, where oil fields are in decline, is likely to end in five to 10 years and others are at sea, which makes the required infrastructure more more more important, resources added.
The DPR did not respond to a request for comment on how it decided the flare sites, when it will announce the winners, or whether it participated in the bidding process.
Two bidders told Reuters that they defected before this year because the delays caused them Nigeria’s commitment.
Oneal Lajuwomi, Executive Leader of Wavelength, said his energy company had spent $20,000, but it was not worth investing more money, deterred by what he said were poor data, adding the fuel produced and how long it would last.
“How do you assess the economic viability of the allocation if you don’t know those things?The challenge for us and many others was a lack of trust,” Lajuwomi said.
Delays harm bidders, who will have to review the schedule with their sponsors and make costly reviews of feasibility studies to remain in conflict.
A bidder still in the proceedings and some other close source said the DPR’s silence had frightened some funders who were discouraged by the unpredictable timetable and had less liquidity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Resources indicated that the DPR and the Minister of Petroleum had used their legal authority to grant “exemptions” to the sites, possibly saving them from being auctioned.
Neither the DPR nor the Ministry of Petroleum responded to requests for comment on this matter.
‘THERE IS NO MONEY’
The World Bank said it was not concerned about the supply or variety of flare sites, adding that Nigeria, along with Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Indonesia and Iraq, had made progress.
(Chart: Torch in Nigeria has fallen considerably: https://graphics. reuters. com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/jznvnljowvl/chart. png)
However, observers said that Nigeria’s energy sector, combined with the location and length of some sites, made it possible for an investor to earn money by promoting gas, even though electricity rates more than doubled or less.
“It will be increasingly difficult to completely remove the rockets, because many of them are small,” said Gail Anderson, director of upstream studies at Wood Mackenzie, adding: “Many of them are in remote locations. “
Renaissance Capital analyst Nikolas Stefanou echoed the unrest in the energy sector and said other buyers were too small.
“The challenge is to locate a reli demand source well,” Stefanou said.
And although the state oil company NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum have announced plans to generate a call for fuel-based fuels, such as liquefied petroleum fuel (LPG), the DPR and a subsidiary of a national oil company have also added tariffs. .
These disorders make it difficult to find buyers for those hoping to make money from weeded fuel.
Back in Ughelli, a 20-foot wall of burning fuel sends heat waves over Root Ohoteka and 4 of his sons, who uses the maximum temperature to dry the cassava flakes, which he sells.
The intense heat speeds up the process, however, the 25-year-old told Reuters that she would rather find another way to feed her circle of relatives because she is involved in the effects of fumes on her health.
“If I had money, I’d stop. But there’s no money. “
(Additional report by Tife Owolabi in the Delta state and Benjamin Mallet in Paris, edited by Simon Webb, Veronica Brown and Alexander Smith)