COP31: Nigeria pitches $2.2 billion flare gas plan to investors as flaring persists

Nigeria’s upstream petroleum regulator told investors at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, that capturing the gas burnt off at the country’s oil fields could unlock about $2.2 billion in investment.

The chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, 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.

Ms Eyesan spoke on Wednesday at a side event hosted by the commission at the Nigerian pavilion, where the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Emission Tracker (NOGIET), a satellite-linked portal that lets users check what oil and gas companies report about their emissions, was also launched.

“Countries are now being judged not by the targets they announce, but by the projects they deliver, the emissions they reduce and the capital they mobilise,” she said.

The gas flare programme seeks to end routine flaring, create jobs, and support local participation in line with Nigeria’s nationally determined contribution, its climate plan under the Paris Agreement.

The commission issued permits to 28 companies under the programme in December 2025, when its chief executive at the time, Gbenga Komolafe, projected $2 billion in investment.

Nigeria flared 203.9 billion standard cubic feet of gas in 2025, according to commission data.

Flaring fell about 8.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 from a year earlier, but the share of gas flared rose to 7.48 per cent in August, the highest since October 2025.

A PREMIUM TIMES investigation published in October found weak enforcement of the anti-flaring law and gaps in how methane emissions are measured.

Flare-gas capture was one of several markets Ms Eyesan said the commission’s rules have opened to investors at the event, focusing on moving from policy implementation to investment.

She said the commission has used the summits from COP27 to COP30 to announce its rules, including its 2022 guidelines on fugitive methane and greenhouse gas emissions and its upstream decarbonisation framework, and that COP31 is about delivering on them.

“The framework is in place, the opportunities are clear, and attention must now turn to mobilising the technology, financing and partnerships needed to scale delivery,” she said.

The NUPRC boss noted that the rules are driving demand for leak detection and repair, satellite and aerial monitoring, digital measurement and verification platforms, vapour recovery, flare-gas capture and electric pneumatic replacements.

“These are no longer theoretical requirements. They are emerging markets created by regulatory implementation,” she said.

Ms Eyesan cited assessments by the Clean Air Task Force showing that a set of abatement measures could cut Nigeria’s methane emissions by about 533 kilotonnes a year. She said costs could be recovered where the captured gas is sold.

She also said Nigeria is well positioned to become Africa’s leading hub for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) by virtue of its depleted oil and gas reservoirs, existing infrastructure and regulations.

The commission’s COP31 materials put Nigeria’s storage potential at about 3.4 billion tonnes of CO₂ across 606 depleted fields in the Niger Delta.

Nigeria holds 37.01 billion barrels of oil and condensate and 215.19 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to the commission’s January reserves disclosure.

Ms Eyesan said the reserves will remain central to growth and energy security, but that the sector’s future competitiveness will increasingly depend on its carbon performance.

The NOGIET portal combines satellite detection of methane plumes, maps of oil blocks and pipelines, and facility-level emissions data. Regulators can use it to find hotspots, spot gaps in operators’ reports and decide where to inspect.

It was developed by the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) with funding and technical support from the Global Methane Hub.

The tool will be jointly operated by the NUPRC, which regulates oil and gas production, and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which oversees pipelines, processing and fuel distribution.

Nigeria has pledged to cut methane emissions by 60 per cent by 2035. The commission’s 2022 guidelines require oil and gas companies to replace emission estimates with measurements by the first quarter of 2027. The tracker will help regulators check the figures they report.

Ms Eyesan said the technology is largely available and the rules are in place, but that scaling up will require closer synergy between government, industry, technology providers and climate-finance partners to close funding gaps.