Petition: For a real gas revolution, stop gas flaring

This petition was drawn up at the first-ever general meeting of Host Communities Network (HoCoN Nigeria). The network brings together communities with polluting industrial installations as well as those suffering impacts of such activities. At the meeting held yesterday at Ibada Elume, Delta State, there were delegates from Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, FCT (Abuja), Ondo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara States of Nigeria. If you would like to endorse this petition kindly send your name, and/or organisation's name and address or country to this email address: [email][email protected]

Dear Mr. President,

PETITION: FOR A REAL GAS REVOLUTION, STOP GAS FLARING

We are concerned groups comprised of individuals, community people, students, civil society organizations, environmentalists and the media within and outside Nigeria who have interest in the protection of the environment and rights of communities. We write to register our concern over the proposed Gas Revolution launched by Your Excellency sometime in March, 2011.

The Gas Revolution is indeed laudable going by the array of expected benefits. During the launch you said the implementation of the entire gas master-plan would result in about $25 billion worth of investments over the next three years, with activities in fertilizer production, petrochemicals and methanol manufacturing.

Going by the health hazards associated with gas flaring and the attendant chequered history of the Nigerian government pronouncements to halt gas flaring over the past decades, we wish to state that though the project may sound promising, yet many Nigerians are utterly disappointed by government’s nonchalance on past promises and its obvious lack of will to clampdown on the multinational oil companies that are responsible for gas flaring.

The Associated Gas Re-Injection Act of 1979 set 1984 as the date that oil corporations operating in Nigeria should ensure zero flares. Again the federal government pledged to halt gas flares in Nigeria and set January 1, 2008 as the zero flare date. Yet these deadlines have been characterized by shifts that have never been adhered to.

Rather than enforce those laws and a subsisting court judgment against the practice, the government in countless instances succumbed to excuses from oil companies for shifts in flare-out deadlines.

Reports show that over 75 per cent of Nigeria’s associated gas is flared thereby making the country the second highest gas flaring nation in the world. Gas flaring contributes significantly to climate change and increases the vulnerability of poor communities.

As you know already, Mr. President, gas flaring causes acid rain which acidifies the lakes and streams and damages crops and vegetation. It leads to low farm yields and affects the health and livelihoods of the local people. Gas flaring increases the risk of respiratory illnesses, asthma and cancer, amongst other ailments. The flare stack is often located in the heart of the community a few meters away from homes.

According to a conservative World Bank report in 2005, Nigeria loses US $ 2.5 billion annually through gas flaring.

Government’s inability to completely halt gas flaring in the country prompted the Iwerekhan community in Delta State to sue SHELL for its continued flaring of gas in the community. The Federal High Court sitting in Benin City on the 14th November, 2005 ordered the stoppage of gas flaring declaring it as a “gross violation of the fundamental human rights to life and dignity.”

We are worried that despite the court order, gas flaring has continued unabated in the Niger Delta thereby continuing to put the local communities and the entire world at risk.

We are eager to applaud a real gas revolution in Nigeria as it will bring much needed respite to our polluted environment and damaged health. But for this revolution to be meaningful it must start with the total stoppage of routine gas flaring.

This is our petition and we urge you to halt gas flaring and thereby instigate a real gas revolution. The offending oil companies can afford to delay action in this regard but we have run out of time. The onus to make this happen rests with you, our president.