The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced that Nigeria shortened gas flaring by 26% in the last ten years, All Africa reported.

According to This Day, the decline in gas flaring pushed the African country down from the second position as the highest gas-flaring nation to the seventh. The flaring rates dropped from 36% in 2006 to 10% in 2016.

NNPC’s COO Upstream, Mallam Bello Rabiu, stated that in 2006 Nigeria was flaring 2.5bcf of gas while consuming only 300mcf/d of gas.

Rabiu further noted that the drastic reduction in gas flaring was achieved through aggressive gas commercialization anchored on the Gas Master Plan. He added that, as part of efforts to preserve the environment, technology also helped the industry to record a drastic reduction.

“The Gas Master Plan was geared towards addressing four key critical issues of gas availability, infrastructure, commercialization framework and gas affordability,” Rabiu explained.