Nigeria-based oil company, Seplat has announced its decision to invest about $100 million in order to double its annual gas handling capacity to about 280 million cubic feet by 2015.
This decision is targeted at drastically reducing burning natural gas at its oil fields within five years; and to increase the profitability of the domestic fuel market.
Seplat, which flares off about 26 million cubic feet of gas a year, expects to expand its fuel processing facilities.
“The company is moving from government stopping flaring by regulation into the industry stopping flaring because it is a commercial value,” said Chief Executive Officer Austin Avuru.
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“We are combating the challenge of gas flaring.”
Figures from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) indicate that Nigeria loses over 4.9 million dollars (more than N735 million) daily to gas flaring.
Seplat Petroleum Development Company recently debuted on the Nigerian Stock Market, raising about $500 million in an initial share sale.
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Gas flaring, which entails burning off the natural gas associated with crude oil during extraction in places where there is no capacity or infrastructure to trap and make use of the gas, has been illegal since 1984.
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