Nigeria’s gas output increased by 2.2% in December 2023 compared to November 2023, when the country’s oil and gas companies produced 146.991 billion standard cubic feet of gas.
The Times reported that this data was obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
However, according to the NNPC, flares accounted for 7.75% of the 11.646 billion gas generated in the month under review.
The oil company also stated that compared to the 11.471 billion SCF of gas flared in November 2023, the volume of gas flared in December 2023 was 1.53 percent greater.
The NNPC provided a breakdown of the overall gas output for the month under review. It said that the output of associated gas was 97.903 billion, or 65.2% of the total gas output, and the output of non-associated gas was 52.327 billion SCF, or 34.83 percent of the total output.
In addition, the NNPC reported that of the total gas produced in the month, 8.788 billion SCF was used as fuel; Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas used 61.21 billion SCF; and 1.365 billion and 1.84 billion SCF were used to produce Natural Gas Liquids and Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
The national oil firm added that 41.931 billion SCF of petrol was reinjected and used, while domestic petrol sales were 23.447 billion SCF.
In light of this, the overall amount of gas used in the reviewed month was 138.954 billion SCF, up 2.54% from the 135.518 billion SCF recorded in November 2023; the amount of gas flared was 11.646 billion SCF.
According to the NNPC, Shell Nigeria, which is a joint venture, had the greatest gas output for the month under review, producing 36.416 billion standard cubic feet of gas, or 24.24 percent of the total gas output.
With 19.812 billion SCF of gas, TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria came next, followed by Mobil and Chevron with 19.731 billion SCF and 17.917 billion SCF of gas, respectively.
Within the Production Sharing Contract segment, the Esso Exploration Production Nigeria and Esso Erha FPSO recorded 4.575 billion SCF and 4.412 billion SCF of gas, respectively, while the Star Deepwater Agbami Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel recorded 12.409 billion SCF. Total Upstream Nigeria recorded 12.087 billion SCF.
The Nigeria Petroleum Development Company/Seplat Development Company joint venture, Seplat Petroleum, and the NPDC-Chevron Nigeria Limited joint venture were revealed by the NNPC to be the worst offenders during the reviewed month, having all flared 100% of their oil output.