Seplat, a Nigeria-based oil company, has announced a $100 million investment to quadruple its annual gas handling capacity to around 280 million cubic feet by 2015.
This strategy aims to significantly reduce natural gas use at its oil fields within five years while also increasing the profitability of the domestic fuel market.
Seplat, which flares out over 26 million cubic feet of petrol per year, plans to expand its fuel processing facilities.
“The company is moving from government stopping flaring by regulation into the industry stopping flaring because it is a commercial value,” said Chief Executive Officer Austin Avuru.
“We are combating the challenge of gas flaring.”
Figures from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) indicate that Nigeria loses over 4.9 million dollars (more than N735 million) daily to gas flaring.
Seplat Petroleum Development Company recently debuted on the Nigerian Stock Market, raising about $500 million in an initial share sale.
Gas flaring, which entails burning off the natural gas associated with crude oil during extraction in places where there is no capacity or infrastructure to trap and make use of the gas, has been illegal since 1984.
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