Nigeria Counts on Gas to Ease Pangs of Fuel Subsidy Cuts
The rationale for using gas as a fuel in Nigeria was there for decades. In the end, Nigerian oil producers flare massive volumes of gas they cannot use every year. At the same time, Nigeria imports big volumes of refined fuels from the international market at top dollar. See how that makes sense? Me neither. There are very strong lobbies that make money on the status quo so they block change – maybe now things get moving as the country runs out of casino money to play with. But only producing papers what Nigeria using its own gas could look like won’t be enough. Fist, flaring penalties will have to be made painful. Because right now they are not. Only when those that flare the gas are bleeding when doing so they will seek a use for the gas to end the bleed. Use it or lose it would do that for the country. Imagine you run an oilfield and if you don’t move your butt, people you don’t know can crawl up your orifices to look what’s wrong. Would that be an incentive?
