About $I billion revenue is lost annually to falsification of gas flare data by Multinational Oil Companies (MOCs) operating in the Nigeria, the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Rasheed Bawa said yesterday in Lagos.
In his contribution at a “One-day workshop on Illicit Financial Flow, Gas Flaring and COP 26” organized by Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre, re:Common and Cornerhouse in collaboration with Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative , with support by MacArthur Foundation, the EFCC Chairman, represented by the Lagos Zonal Coordinator, Ahmed Ghali said the big oil companies falsified gas flare data in order to cut down on payment of penalties.
“Multinational Oil Companies (MOCs) operating in Nigeria has over the years been falsifying gas flare data to cut down on payment of penalties. The former Petroleum Minister, Dr lbe Kachukwu put the loss from this illicit flow to between $500,000,000 and $1,000,000,000 in revenues that would have accrued from the penalties.
“This is as a result of not having an independent tracking mechanism to monitor gas flare data and reliance on the figures submitted by International Oil Companies (lOC),” he said.
Nigeria, via the Associated Gas Reinjection Act 1979, introduced measures to control and eventually end gas flaring. Section 3(1) prohibits the flaring of Associated Gas “without the permission in writing of the Minister of Petroleum.
“Section 3(2) authorizes the minister to issue a flaring certification “utilization or re-injection of the produced gas it is not appropriate or feasible in a particular field or fields.
Bawa said the Petroleum Profit Tax, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (Fiscal Incentive Guarantees and Assurance) Act, Associated Gas Re-injection Act, Private sector led initiatives like the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project and the Domestic Gas Supply Obligations (DGSOs) are some of the laudable initiatives towards a clean energy transition in Nigeria.
