At a COP31 side event, Nigeria's upstream petroleum regulator put a $2.2 billion pitch on the table, inviting investors to take a serious look at what has long been treated as waste.
Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, said flare sites under the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme could support projects using up to about 250 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. That is a significant volume, and the pitch is essentially this: the gas being burned off at oil fields is not a problem, it is an opportunity.
The caveat, though, is right there in the headline. Flaring persists. Nigeria has been promising to end gas flaring for decades, and communities living near flare sites have spent those same decades breathing the consequences. The commercialisation programme is meant to change the equation by making it financially worthwhile to capture and use that gas rather than burn it.
Whether investors will move from interest to actual capital commitment is the question worth watching as the climate talks continue.
Originally published by Premium Times.