The Environmental Effects of Gas Flaring

Nigeria has been an oil-producing country for decades, but portions of their production process, specifically gas flaring, causes adverse affects on the environment. According to Justice in Nigeria Now!, in their "Gas Flaring in Nigeria: An Overview April 2010," "Gas flaring refers to the burning of natural gas that is associated with crude oil when it is pumped up from the ground."

Pollution and Air Quality

• Gas flaring leads to significant increases of carbon emissions in to the atmosphere and its combustion releases high amounts of soot and carbon monoxide. Beyond the greenhouse gases, gas flaring is also responsible for particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and carcinogenic substances such as benzene and toluene.

  By contributing these greenhouse and other harmful gases to the atmosphere, gas flares contribute to climate change as well as acid rain in Nigeria.

Effects on Health

• Villages next to flaring sites are common and with flares burning around the clock, people must live with the constant noise and the toxic smoke the flares produce. These communities are at high risk for asthma, blood disorders, cancer and other chronic respiratory illnesses, and have limited access to health care. Acid rain pouring over the land puts homes and crops are at risk.

A Potential Source of Energy

• When Nigeria became an oil provider in the 1960s, infrastructure limited how they could separate natural gas from the extracted crude oil. Though burning the gas was the cheapest option at the time, using the unwanted gas as an energy source has been a wasted opportunity for years. As stated by Justice in Nigeria Now!, "An array of technologies to capture or use the associated natural gas exist as viable alternatives to flaring. It can be reinjected, which boosts oil production and contains the gas; transported via gas pipelines; converted to liquids that can be more readily transported; or used on site."