REJOINDER: ‘EU’s planned sanction on methane emissions heightens pressure on Nigeria’

A PREMIUM TIMES analysis published on 9 June 2024 explored Nigeria’s level of preparedness as the European Union plans to sanction fossil fuel imports with emissions level above the approved threshold starting from 2030.

The article titled, ‘EU’s planned sanction on methane emissions heightens pressure on Nigeria,’ highlighted the scale of environmental degradation in the Niger Delta over the years and the benefits the country stands to gain through methane capture and reduction in emissions.

Authored by Ronald Adamolekun, the article also tracked the activities of the country’s super emitters while examining regulators’ readiness for the start of the implementation of the new EU law.

It also highlighted NOSDRA’s efforts to curb fugitive methane emissions in Nigeria.

The piece referenced an interview with Idris Musa, the agency’s director general, where he mentioned how NOSDRA was developing a satellite-based emissions tracker as a top-down measurement reporting and verification system tool to help monitor and cut fugitive emissions across gas pipelines.

He said the tracker would “serve as a tool to detect, measure and quantify emissions from assets that can be coupled with Bottom-Top emission data tracking to meet the approved levels set by the EU law.”

The NOSDRA chief stated that the agency is investing in new technologies for leak detection and that its monitoring, reporting and verification system would help strengthen monitoring and surveillance systems along pipelines.

However, the agency has sent a rejoinder reacting to issues raised in the article.

Read the rejoinder in full here.

REJOINDER: ‘EU’s Planned Sanction on Methane Emissions Heightens Pressure on Nigeria’

By Okechukwu Ronald Emeh

The attention of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has been duly drawn to a report with the above title, which was featured in Premium Times Newspaper of June 9, 2024. In the report, written by one Roland Adamolekun, he beamed light on what he perceived as the significant pressure on Nigeria to address methane emissions, particularly in its oil and gas industry, due to new European Union (EU) ’s regulations.

While appreciating some of the vital issues raised by the writer in his report in Premium Times, NOSDRA — the statutory environmental regulatory body in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry — is, however, in discordant tune with a number of his contentious claims in the said publication. Hence, the inevitability of this rejoinder whose essence is not to join issues with him but to set the record straight on such claims evidently buoyed by damaging lack of factuality and in-depth research that are supposed to be part of the hallmarks of investigative journalism. Thus, the claims of Adamolekun with the likelihood of creating base and unnecessary innuendos, misconceptions and misrepresentation in some public sphere about the Federal Government’s avowed commitment and restless efforts to tackle gas flaring and the corresponding methane emissions on the basis of acceptable international standards are as follows:

• · “…the country’s failure to reduce methane emissions proportionally with oil production underscores the lack of genuine efforts to mitigate gas flaring. Moreover, the health and environmental impacts of methane emissions have been largely ignored, despite evidence of severe consequences”
• · “…regulatory bodies such as NUPRC and NMDPRA in Nigeria have shown a lack of responsiveness and accountability in enforcing environmental standards”
• · “… the Nigerian government’s prioritisation of profit over environmental and public health concerns”

Before making any inroad in simultaneously responding to the foregoing claims by Adamolekun, which reek of insinuation about lack of political will and inadequacy on the part of the Nigerian government to rigorously tackle gas flares, it is apt to note that the EU’s new regulations on methane emissions have provided valuable insights into the impelling necessity to place premium on environmental conservation in the country’s critical oil and gas industry. In synch with this, NOSDRA, as an embodiment of the Federal Government’s implacable commitment and determination towards ensuring zero-tolerance for pollution in the industry, has played a key role in efforts to cut down gas flares and the precipitous methane emissions through part of its deliberate and well-articulated environmental regulations, guidelines and standards for the petroleum industry in chime with the best international practices. This is apart from striving to constrict and contain reckless incidents of oil spillage and gas flares with an eye to safeguarding the ecosystem, human health and means of livelihood and ensuring social peace.

It is germane, at this stage, to bring to public limelight the landmark efforts by the Federal Government, under the institutional framework of NOSDRA, to confront head-on the monstrous incidence of gas flaring and the attendant methane emissions through innovative and confidence-building policies and programmes. On this score, the agency has introduced the technology-driven state-of-the art Nigerian Gas Fare Tracker (NGFT), which serves as a cornerstone in the country’s environmental regulatory paradigm for the gas sub-sector. Instructively, the NGFT — a satellite-based platform – provides near real-time monitoring and tracking of gas flare activities in Nigeria and thereby enhances transparency and accountability within the sub-sector. This tool, which underscores the Federal Government’s commitment to innovation and excellence in combating gas flares and the associated emissions, not only identifies and quantifies flared emissions but also provides invaluable data and insights to governmental bodies for informed decision-making. In the words of Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, the Honourable Minister of State for Environment: “The unique, technologically-driven environmental regulatory tool not only identifies gas flare sites with precision but also quantifies CO2 emissions, compute economic values and estimates the power generating potential of the flared gas”.

Although the said report written by Adamolekun in Premium Times might have — out of omission owing to dearth of in-depth research or commission possibly aroused by a craving to give the dog a bad name in order to hang it — not taken into account the spirited or spectacular efforts of the Nigerian government in rolling back the frontiers of gas flares and the implicit harmful impacts, the overly promising potentials of the somewhat game-changing NGFT in coming to grips with this serious environmental challenge cannot be overstated. Interestingly enough, the writer cited a study sponsored by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), which, incidentally, NOSDRA was a major driving force in producing by virtue of its well-enunciated graph on gas flaring from the five super emitters in the country. Notably, the agency formulated the study in 2022 under its “Maiden National Stakeholders’ Summit on the Use of Satellite for Tracking Gas Flare and Emissions in the Oil and Gas industry in Nigeria” held in Abuja.

Part of the stellar performance by the Nigerian government to constrain and control reckless gas flaring and oil spillage by petroleum industry operators was reflected in the “Maiden Edition of Environmental Performance Awards” for the operators conducted in Abuja in May 2024 by NOSDRA, in conjunction with Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a non-governmental organisation that works to promote human rights, including the right to a healthy environment, especially in communities hosting extractive industries. In a keynote address at the workshop, the Honourable Minister of State for Environment opined that the “award ceremony celebrates the nominees who have set benchmarks in environmental best practices….”

It is also noteworthy that NOSDRA’s “Inaugural Workshop on Request for Quarterly Reporting of Utilisation Efforts and Initiatives towards the Reduction of Carbon Footprints” organised in Abuja on May 23 of this year, coupled with other catalytic initiatives, encapsulated the agency’s unflagging commitment and strides to ensuring environmental sustainability in Nigeria’s petroleum industry. In that trail-blazing workshop, which witnessed the active participation of phalanxes of different critical stakeholders, including those from the oil and gas sector, relevant governmental bodies, the international partners, civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media, the minister highlighted the resolve and unrelenting efforts of the Federal Government to combat gas flaring and emissions in the country. It is widely believed that the quarterly reporting initiative would help to plug some of the regulatory gaps in the oil and gas sector, besides catalysing smarter utilisation initiatives for sustainable energy access provision, as well as preparation to ensure compliance readiness to new EU’s regulations on methane emissions capture that could affect our gas export agenda. Expectedly, the upcoming launch of the satellite-based Methane Emissions Tracker by NOSDRA would represent a significant milestone in Nigeria’s journey towards achieving tier 2 and 3 data reporting requirements, as outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s emission data grade requirement.

What is more, the agency has co-pioneered a Mechanism for Fact-checking Gas Flare Volumes, thus ensuring transparency and accountability within the gas sub-sector. Suffice it to say that NOSDRA’s advocacy for a Hybrid Emissions Data Gathering regime underscores the Federal Government’s dedication to accuracy and reliability in environmental reporting in the upstream petroleum industry that recognises the use of satellite approach for top-down field data gathering, while the fiscal-grade metering serves as a bottom-top concept of emission Measurement Reporting and Verification (MRV) system needed to monitor the activities of the industry operators in Nigeria.

Looking back, in July 2023, a team from the Gas Revenue Mobilisation Committee of Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFC), led by its Chairman, Mr. Patrick Mgbedo, paid a working visit to NOSDRA to seek for inter-agency cooperation on generating a much-needed accurate yearly data on gas flares in Nigeria in terms of the quantity flared and the revenue derivable from such wasted flares when sanctioned as fines and penalties. Mr. Mgbedo highly commended the agency for its leading role in oil spill management in the country, as well as its impressive provision of insightful data and technical expertise on how to address the vexed issues of gas flares, oil spills and crude oil theft. He pledged that RMFC was willing and ready to tap from the vast wealth of knowledge and experience embedded in NOSDRA’s custodian of gas flare data to serve the country in terms of revenue mobilisation from flared gas by International Oil Companies (IOCs), while taking cognisance of the overwhelming need to promote clean and sustainable environment in the petroleum industry. This is as the Nigerian government girds its loins to frontally tackle the disturbing incidence of gas flaring through likely bankable or revenue-yielding financial sanctions to dissuade such harmful practices by petroleum industry operators, as well as the new policy of increased gas utilisation as source of clean and cheaper energy for domestic use, automobile and power generation. It is also apposite to state that in this evolving brave new world of digital economic transformation, NOSDRA has not been found wanting in promoting the use of Geospatial Information Technologies as a value addition to continuously monitor the impacts of the oil and gas industry operators on the environment. Of course, one cannot discount the potentials of the agency-produced NGFT tool and the like in adding value to the numerous laudable initiatives of the Nigerian government on gas flare-down and methane mitigation agenda in the country by 2030.

At this juncture, it is noteworthy that the Federal Government’s commitment and restless efforts towards institutionalising zero-tolerance policy for environmental pollution in our petroleum industry, through NOSDRA, have remained unsullied or not dampened by capacity and institutional building challenges facing the agency, such as paucity of fund and limited accoutrements for oil spill detection, response and remediation. As Nigeria is assumably now in a tryst with the future to meet its environmental sustainability and climate goals, critical stakeholders or publics, including Adamolekun, are called upon not only to acknowledge the catalytic role being played by the agency in promoting the noble culture of reducing pollution in our petroleum industry but also lend their much-needed support to enable it realise its statutory mandate in the enlightened interests of unthreatened biodiversity, human health, means of livelihood and social peace in the country, particularly in host oil and gas communities.

Again, there is not only an over-aching need but also a fierce sense of urgency to strengthen and galvanise NOSDRA’s statutory mandate — not to mention integrating it fully into Nigeria’s Hydrocarbon Regulatory Framework of the petroleum industry. For one, such a desirable move would profoundly contribute to both institutional and capacity building drives that will enable it discharge its official duties and obligations without compromise, levity and lethargy. Last but not least, there is a crying need for NOSDRA to be repositioned as “Environmental Police” in the industry, particularly now the implementation of the all-important Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is on its inchoate stage. For one reason, such a move would be in tune with the lofty and valiant determination of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu — as part of his Renewed Hope Agenda – to vastly improve the effectiveness, efficiency and unfettered-ness of enforcing all environmental laws in our oil and gas sector in order to ensure sustainable national development, besides blocking revenue leakages from fines and penalties for habitual and un-responding oil spill and gas flare corporate company defaulters, safeguarding human health and means of livelihood and promoting social peace by staving off communal grievances over pollution and the requisite compensation claims. Evidently, NOSDRA is resolutely committed and steely determined to enforce all environmental regulations, guidelines and standards in the country’s oil and gas sector with a view to sustainably managing our natural environment/resources, protecting public health and mitigating pollution and climate change.

It is impossible to conclude this rejoinder without calling on Adamolekun to kindly visit NOSDRA’s Website (www.nosdra.gov.ng) for more instructive and knowledgeable information from the insightful work of the agency on gas flares and the way forward out of the crisis. All relevant stakeholders on environmental preservation in Nigeria’s petroleum industry are also besought to close ranks and forge ahead in synergy in a deliberate and resolute bid to effectively address the hydra-headed monster of gas flares, along with oil spills, in the quest for a cleaner, safer and more sustainable future in the industry.

*Emeh is Head of Media and Publicity Unit (MPU) of National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Headquarters, Abuja, FCT.