20 February 2008
Lagos — The Senate Committees on Environment, Petroleum (Upstream) and Gas Resources, sitting jointly at a public hearing on gas flare out, yesterday threatened to order shut down of oil wells that constitute health hazards to host communities, following the failure of multi-national oil companies to meet the January 1, 2008 gas flare out deadline.
The Committees also said that they would press the Senate to pass a resolution for application of necessary penalties on oil companies that have not stopped gas flaring.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Grace Bent, said at the investigative public hearing that the "continued degradation of the environment and the health hazards attending the continued flare by oil companies will no longer be tolerated."
According to Bent, "The January 1, 2008 flare out deadline is still sacrosanct and as such defaulting companies should now be made to face sanctions for continued flares." She said that there was need to identify some of the oil wells owned by these multi-national oil companies that failed to meet the deadline and that were threatening the host communities .The identification,according to her,is to shut them down ahead of the final stoppage of gas flaring.
She declared:
"We will not hesitate in shutting oil wells that are particularly hazardous and that continually endanger the Nigerian environment and indeed the health of our people.
"This Senate will not watch helplessly while this trend progresses unchecked. We must pay a sacrifice now to ensure the existence and well being of our people and the environment; it is the expectation that this will spur these companies to adopt recommendations from the Kyoto Protocol."
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas Resources, Senator Osita Izunaso, also said the Senate was worried that the oil companies could not meet the January 1, 2008 gas flare out deadline.
According to him, "We are also worried that oil and gas companies in Nigeria are operating under the misconception that the flare out deadline is now December 31, 2008.
"The recognised gas flare deadline is January 1, 2008. We have to borrow from other countries that have been able to achieve gas flare out. We are losing a lot of money and many people are dying as a result of gas flaring."
A Director in the Ministry of Environment and Housing, Mr. Lawrence Ajibade who represented the Minister, Mrs. Alima Taiwo Alao, said July 1, 2008 was the date for gas flare out, pointing out that the agreement was reached at a meeting held on August 9, 2004 at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Abuja.
He said that the July 1, 2008 date was the authentic date the Ministry was working with, adding that efforts need to be geared towards perfecting strategies of implementation to ensure that the deadline was achieve able.
But a representative of the OPTS, Dr. Charles Adedeji, said the gas flare out deadline of 2008 was not realistic.
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