Shell’s half-hearted commitment to its own pledge is worrying
Routine gas flaring is a 160-year-old industry practice of wastefully burning, rather than using or conserving, associated gas, a by-product of oil production. This massive flaring by Shell ranks Nigeria among the largest seven practitioners since 2014. Others are Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, and Venezuela. The federal government should therefore be concerned by the shocking confession Shell made in its Energy Transition Strategy 2024 report. “Around 50 per cent of total routine and non-routine flaring in our Integrated Gas and Upstream facilities in 2023 occurred in assets operated by the SPDC and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company,” the report stated.
The flaring of gas, according to scientists, contributes to climate change and impacts the environment through the emission of CO2, black carbon, and other pollutants. It also wastes a valuable energy resource that could be used to advance the sustainable development of producing countries. To end this wastefulness and save the environment and humanity, the World Bank in 2015 launched the “Zero Routine Flaring (ZRF) by 2030” initiative that commits governments and oil companies to end routine flaring no later than 2030. The Initiative is designed to facilitate cooperation between all stakeholders so that solutions to ending routine gas flaring can be identified and implemented.
While the Initiative is voluntary, commitments are monitored through a variety of means, including government and company reports and satellite observations. ZRF endorsers now account for approximately 60 per cent of total global gas flaring. However, between now and 2030, the World Bank said, “We must ensure continued global momentum and additional commitments from governments and industry to end this polluting and wasteful industry practice of routinely flaring associated gas.”
On 16 January 2024, Shell reached an agreement to sell SPDC to a consortium of five companies, subject to approvals by the Federal Government of Nigeria and other conditions. And Shell is one of the companies that endorsed the World Bank initiative. “In 2021, we brought forward our target to eliminate routine flaring from our upstream operations to 2025 from 2030. This accelerates our commitment in 2015 to end routine flaring as a signatory to the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring (ZRF) by 2030 initiative,” the company stated. Yet, it has operated in Nigeria without due regard for its own pledge.
Environmentalists find Shell’s position distasteful, and as an attempt to whitewash its dirty carbon footprint. “Imagine the scandal of having 50 per cent of their global routine gas flaring in Nigeria. They will soon come up with a fake gas flaring accounting system assigning the onshore flares to the ‘new’ operators of their fields,” said an environmentalist, Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation. “This is the time for the government to clarify who bears responsibility for 68 years of oil spills and routine gas flaring in the respective fields. How much cash or bonds has Shell deposited for the auditing and cleaning up of the mess? It should be borne in mind that right from before/when Shell commissioned the Niger Delta Environmental Survey (NDES) they knew the enormity of havoc they have brought to the region.”
Environmentalists are also questioning the outcomes of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) that was designed as “an opportunity for the federal government, industry, state government, ethnic nationalities, and local communities to work together to resolve an oil field unacceptable practice.” But despite ratifying the Paris Climate Change Agreement and being a signatory to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) principles for global flare-out by 2030, there is nothing to suggest that Nigeria is serious about this “unacceptable practice.” Shell and other companies are taking advantage of that lack of seriousness.
