The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR ) in Nigeria has revealed that additional 3,000 megawatts of electricity can be generated from the current gas being flared in the country.

This is contained in DPR’s report made available at a workshop organised for energy journalists in Lagos state.

The report which explained routine gas flaring as the intentional burning of gas, while non-routine flaring as the need to burn gas due to unexpected emergencies stated that the country currently flares about 11 per cent of its gas production, bringing Nigeria to seventh in the world.

According to the report, if government is able to harness gas currently being flared at the 139 flare locations across the Niger Delta, it would boast of 3,000 MW of electricity in the nearest future.

It explained that solution to gas flaring challenge is for government to construct pipelines, which will harness all gas currently being flared into one position for commercialisation.

To this end, the report explained that government’s current Nigerian Gas Flare Commericlisation (NGFC) programme was geared towards finding markets for gas flared in the country.

The report added that government would be responsible for finding market for gas currently being flared unlike in the past when it was left in the hands of producers.

The report explained that another reason the programme has not been successful is because government left gas flaring commercialisation in the hands of the producers, who do not have much interest in gas.

The Nigerian government is planning to end routine gas flare by 2020.