The transition to green energy is mandatory and cannot be overemphasized. It will be the only sure way that we are going to gain back our natural ecosystems. We can’t possibly continue to plunge deep underneath the earth’s surface drilling and pulling up fossils to produce energy which is and will continue to be a serious threat to human health and the environment at large. And one activity that is a constant threat is gas flaring.
Gas flaring refers to the combustion of associated gas which generally occurs with crude oil. This gas is generated during various processes including oil and gas recovery, petrochemical processes and landfill gas extraction. This kind of flare which is used in the oil and gas industry comprises of a boom or stack which collects the unwanted associated gases to be flared.
The illegality of gas flaring is a phenomenon that most oil producing countries have turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to. The act of venting mainly emits the methane, which is the major carbon pollutant in the process of gas flaring. Venting from flare stacks is illegal since the flare is considered a waste treatment facility. So, in other words, the associated gas is a waste, and the best place considered for disposing off it, is the atmosphere itself where we are supposed to get our clean bit of air or oxygen for breathing and living!
Research shows that in 2020, oil production dropped from 82 million bpd in 2019 to 76 million bpd. This was as a result of the reduction of global gas flaring from 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2019 to 142 bcm In 2020. Of course, we can tell why there was a drop, largely because of the Corona virus pandemic and lockdown measures that rendered all facets of the economy and businesses impotent for a period of time.
Notwithstanding, gas flaring was officially banned in 1984, the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership program has rated Nigeria as the world’s sixth largest gas flaring oil producing country. The other countries include Russia, USA, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and Algeria. These countries account for about two thirds(65%) of the total amount of gas flaring in the world today and produce 40% of the world’s oil each year.
The brutal effects of gas flaring can be seen and felt in the environments close to these gas flaring points. Indigenes or inhabitants who live close by these areas often use the heat generating from these hot gas flaring points to dry their food wares such as tapioca. Their ignorance of the health effects of even using the heat to dry food is another problem on its own. And these IOCs do not even care about the environment or the indigenes enough to synthesize or educate the public about the dangers of such practices.
Secondly, gas flaring releases pollutants especially methane otherwise known as CH4, directly into the air. And of course, this carbon compound traps heat in the atmosphere thereby increasing the heat in that particular area. This process over a period of time contributes to global warming. Other by products from gas flaring are carbon monoxide which also pollute the air and is associated with cancer, skin problems, lung diseases and deformities in children. Flaring also has a grievous impact on the health and environment of land owners who live close to a flared well.
Finally, if we are going to win this fight against air pollution from gas flaring which has culminated into the current global warming and climate change which we are so obviously battling with, we need to do something about the illegality of gas flaring.
Gas flaring is an environmental crime called ‘ecocide’. This is a new term coined by environmental lawyers and used in litigation cases of crimes done against our natural ecosystems, and should be treated as such. Oil companies and oil producing countries who still engage in this nefarious act without proper consideration for the inhabitants who live in these regions should answer to the law, and be made to conform in line with 2015 Paris Climate Agreement Act. Enough said; it’s time to take action!
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