Four years after Nigeria tightened its anti-gas flaring laws, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation finds weak enforcement, rising methane emissions, with oil-producing communities paying severely for these.
For decades, the orange glow from gas flares has lit up the skies of Umuechem in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State long after sunset.
Standing on her cassava and vegetable farm in April, Ms Ordu pointed to crops she said no longer grow as they once did. Her farmland, located a few hundred metres from an oil facility operated by Heirs Energies under Oil Mining Lease (OML) 17, has supported her family for years. She says harvests have steadily declined.
“When I plant vegetables, they don’t grow well because of the heat from the flare. They wither quickly. Even when I apply fertiliser, they are still unhealthy.”
She questioned why the gas continues to burn while the community remains without electricity for over three years. “They should convert it to electricity instead of wasting it,” she said.
A PREMIUM TIMES analysis of Google Earth imagery showed the nearest residential building to be 328 metres from the flare facility.
Ms Ordu’s experience mirrors complaints heard in many oil-producing communities, where residents say gas flaring has become a permanent feature of life despite repeated government promises to end the practice.
Gas flaring has long symbolised the environmental cost of oil production in Nigeria. Besides wasting valuable natural gas, the practice releases carbon dioxide, methane and other pollutants that contribute to climate change.
The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), signed into law in August 2021, was expected to mark a turning point.
Section 108 of the Act required companies producing natural gas within 12 months of the law’s effective date to submit Flare Elimination and Monetisation Plans (FEMP), outlining how they would end flaring and commercialise gas.
In 2023, the regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), strengthened those obligations through the Gas Flaring, Venting and Methane Emissions (Prevention of Waste and Pollution) Regulations.
The regulations require operators to prepare methane emissions inventories, keep daily records of gas flaring and venting, implement Leak Detection and Repair programmes, report fugitive methane emissions and sign binding Milestone Development Agreements with the regulator.
Taken together, the Act and the regulations created what appeared to be one of the continent’s most ambitious legal frameworks for reducing gas flaring and methane emissions.
However, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation found that while the legal framework imposes detailed compliance obligations on oil and gas producers, the enforcement remains weak.
Gas flaring and methane emissions continue in many oil-producing communities with little evidence that the promised reforms have translated into meaningful environmental protection.
Over three months, PREMIUM TIMES visited oil-producing communities in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states where residents live close to facilities operated by Heirs Energies, Aradel Holdings, Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Production Company (SEEPCO) and Frontier Oil.
This newspaper analysed gas-flaring data published by the NUPRC, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA). It also reviewed the PIA and its implementing regulations, examined sustainability reports and methane disclosures, and sent detailed media enquiries to the companies and the regulator.
The investigation found that Nigeria’s legal framework for ending routine gas flaring has, to a greater extent, remained unenforced.
Although operators are legally required to eliminate flaring and implement methane-reduction measures, flare volumes rose at several oil assets after the regulations took effect.
Some companies failed to disclose key environmental records requested by PREMIUM TIMES, including their FEMP, methane inventories and implementation milestones. One operator admitted it had not complied with two major regulatory requirements, yet faced no known sanction.
For many host communities, the promise of reform exists only on paper.
About 25 kilometres from Umuechem, another flare stack burns day and night in Mbodo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers, where Heirs Energies also operates within OML 17.
Residents say prolonged exposure has become part of daily life. “The impact is obvious on our roofing sheets,” said Emechukwu Handsome, secretary of the Mbodo Group Host Communities Development Trust. “Because of our closeness to the flare site, our roofs deteriorate faster.”
He also recalled a medical outreach organised by Heirs Energies that produced an unexpected outcome.
“We set aside one day for eye examinations because we thought only a few people would come. The turnout was more than three times what we expected, and many people could not be attended to,” he said.
At the community’s primary health centre, health workers told PREMIUM TIMES that itchy eyes, chest pain, skin rashes and malaria are among the recurring complaints they receive. They did not directly attribute the illnesses to gas flaring.
Yet, a growing body of scientific evidence lends weight to the concerns repeatedly raised by host communities.
A study published by the National Library of Medicine identified eye irritation and chest pain among the most frequently reported health conditions in communities exposed to gas flaring in the Niger Delta. Another study published in the West African Journal of Medicine found significantly higher rates of chest pain, breathing difficulties, skin irritation and eye irritation among people living close to flare sites than those residing farther away.
While the studies do not conclude that every illness reported by residents is caused solely by gas flaring, they strengthen scientific concern that prolonged exposure to emissions from flare sites poses substantial public health risks, particularly where communities are located close to active flare stacks.
