Nigeria’s plan to commercialize gas burned from its oil fields is at an advanced stage, the country’s petroleum minister said on Tuesday (September 13) after meeting with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry.
Timipre Sylva said the initiative would cut 15 million metric tons of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
He did not give further details.
Africa’s biggest economy has been trying to harness the gas belching from its oil fields so it can be exported or used to generate power.
But the major oil producer has been hobbled by a lack of finance.
Sylva said, after meeting with Kerry in Abuja, that there was “some moral basis” for Nigeria to get funding from rich nations to meet its climate change goals.
Kerry said Nigeria’s decisions on curbing gas emissions will impact how other African countries proceed with their own plans.
Nigeria has previously said it could be losing $1 billion in revenue each year due to flaring which also adds to extreme environmental pollution in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Credit: Yahoo News