Nigeria Deploys Satellite To Track Gas Flare

The Nigerian government has launched a satellite tracking system to detect gas flaring by international oil companies mostly in the Niger delta region.
The Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, launched the tracker on Thursday in Abuja.
She said Nigeria could raise a whopping $1.1 billion yearly as fines from international oil companies that engage in gas flaring in the oil producing communities.
Communities in the Niger delta are constantly afflicted with gas flaring which spreads toxic smoke and chemicals over their means of livelihood.
The Federal Government has made several attempts and promises to stop flaring from oil wells in the region by setting a deadline and the latest of such deadlines had passed without stopping the poisonous flames.
Now it has deployed a satellite tracking system to end the gas flaring.
One aspect of gas flaring that had not been tapped is its use for power generation.
The Minister said that, if harnessed, gas flaring could meet 40 per cent of energy needs in Nigeria but the government must first surmount the challenge of illegal flaring.
The National Co-ordinator, National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in Niger Delta, Edward Obi, said that the impact of the gas flaring was having adverse effect on farmlands in the region, emphasising that the satellite would help in proper monitoring of activities of the drilling companies.
The impact of gas flaring is truly immense. At least 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide are expelled each year through the flaring of gas in Nigeria and the world is now watching to see how efficiently the government would tackle the challenge using the latest technology.
Meanwhile, with the intention of helping Nigeria reduce gas flaring, the UK government, through its Department for International Development (DFID), is today launching a Gas Flare Tracker.
A statement from the High Commission yesterday read that the initiative which is fully funded by the UK government will see a drastic reduction in Nigeria’s annual 17 million tonnes of emitted carbon dioxide, which has negatively affected the Niger Delta environment over the years.
Signed by David Woolf, the statement  indicated  that the gas flare tracker was produced in collaboration with Nigeria’s ministry of environment and the oil spills environmental regulator, NOSDRA.
Woolf noted that while Nigeria’s electricity is not efficient for lack of gas, the nation is flaring gas. “Gas flare tracker is a transparent system that provides data and insights that will help guide regulation, incentives and investments aimed at reducing gas flaring and its impacts”, he said.
The tracker is an online map that displays a number of physical and geophysical GIS layers alongside satellite data on gas flares collected by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
British High Commissioner, Dr. Andrew Pocock, urged  closer UK-Nigeria cooperation in environmental work.
“The gas flare tracker shows everybody not just the environmental benefits of tackling gas flaring but also the financial benefits. With so much to gain, we look forward to working further with Nigeria   on this and other climate related issues”, he said.