Five years after PIA, NUPRC delays still block Nigeria's gas flare elimination efforts
Nearly five years after Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Act took effect in August 2021, regulators have failed to implement its gas flare elimination provisions. The NUPRC only issued required regulations in May 2023—almost two years late—effectively resetting the statutory deadline for operators' flare elimination plans. Flare gas permits weren't awarded to 28 companies until December 2025, allowing millions of cubic feet of gas to burn daily in Niger Delta fields throughout the delay. Compounding the failure, NUPRC missed its June 30 deadline to publish 2025 venting data reports by over a month as of August 2026, despite regulations requiring annual disclosure. Meanwhile, gas flaring penalties redirected to the Federation Account in February 2026 may reduce companies' financial incentive to eliminate flaring, with outstanding liabilities exceeding $936 million despite N700.75 billion collected since 2021. Nigeria leads Africa in methane pollution (16% of sub-Saharan emissions) but struggles to measure reductions accurately due to technical limitations in monitoring systems. With host communities bearing environmental costs while penalties fund federal revenue instead of cleanup, does this arrangement make eliminating gas flaring less attractive for operators?