Nigeria’s gas flaring continued to worsen as energy companies operating in the country flared 11.315 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of gas in September 2025, according to latest data released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, rising by 11.37 per cent compared with 10.431 billion SCF (BSCF) of gas flared in August 2025.
The NNPC in its gas utilisation and flare data for September 2025, also disclosed that the country recorded total gas output of 150.316 billion SCF in the month under review, dropping by 11.48 per cent from 169.819 billion SCF of gas recorded in August 2025, from which 7.53 per cent of the total output was flared.
The continued increase in the percentage volume of gas flared in the country can largely be attributed to the oil spill and gas flare watchdog, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency’s (NOSDRA) discontinuation of gas flare monitoring and tracking across the country.
Prior to June 2025, when NOSDRA last published the May 2025 gas flare data, its Gas Flare Tracker was usually published on a monthly basis.
The tracker showed data on the volume and value of gas flared, the volume of carbon dioxide emitted into the environment, the electricity generation potential of the gas flared and the penalties the offending firms were supposed to pay to the government.
Specifically, since NOSDRA stopped tracking and publishing gas flare data collected from oil and gas production sites across the petroleum industry since May 2025, the country had recorded a steady rise in the percentage volume of gas flared.
For instance, the NNPC, in its gas production and gas flare reports, noted that the percentage volume of gas flared by oil and gas firms in May and June 2025 stood at 5.33 per cent and 5.61 per cent of total gas output in their respective months.
In July 2025, the NNPCL reported that 11.636 billion SCF of gas, representing 5.99 per cent of total gas production in the month, was flared; in August 2025, oil firms flared 6.14 per cent of their total gas output, which was 10.431 billion SCF of their total gas output; while in September 2025, the oil firms flared 7.53 per cent of the 150.316 billion SCF of gas produced in the country in the same month.
When contacted on the issue, NOSDRA refused to provide any reason for its decision to discontinue gas flare tracking.
It will be recalled that NOSDRA, had in 2019, announced that it had commenced the real-time tracking and monitoring of gas flaring and oil spillage across the country, with the launch and handover of the environmental monitoring tools, the Oil Spill Monitor and Gas Flare Tracker.
According to NOSDRA, the advantages of the tracker included that the country would have its own gas flare data, would be able to get whatever amount of gas anybody flares into the system, and the companies compelled to pay the correct penalty.
The Gas Flare Tracker was developed for NOSDRA by the Stakeholder Democratic Network, SDN, with funding from the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform, FOSTER.