The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it is exploring options for commercialising existing gas flare sites in the country.
The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, said this while receiving the national leadership of Host Communities of Nigeria led by its National Chairman, Chief Benjamin Tamaranebi.
The NNPC boss also expressed its commitment to a zero gas flare regime for every new gas project, according to a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday.
Baru said that the corporation would make sure that no new gas project would be approved without zero gas flare modalities, stressing that for already existing gas flare projects, the NNPC was exploring various options to commercialize the gas flare with a view to eliminating it.
He commended HOSTCOM for restoring sanity to the Niger Delta region, saying the relative peace had given operators the leverage to concentrate on production for the benefit of the national economy.
The NNPC boss said, “I want to thank the Oba of Benin for facilitating HOSTCOM and the traditional rulers of Oil Mineral Producing Communities of Nigeria. For us as operators, we will continue to dialogue with the bodies so as to create an enabling operating environment for the business and for the communities.”
He urged HOSTCOM, as a pan-cultural organisation, to partner with the NNPC in stemming incessant pipeline vandalism, illegal refineries and illegal crude oil bunkering in the Niger Delta, adding that the elimination of the vices would reduce to the barest level the incidences of environmental pollution.
