The analysis conducted by the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, states that Nigeria suffered a loss of over $22.9 billion due to gas flaring between 2011 and 2021, which should worry the appropriate authorities. President Bola Tinubu, who is still in charge of the Petroleum Resources Ministry, needs to put policies in place to guarantee that the nation properly utilizes its gas potential to increase revenue, drive economic growth, and create jobs.

At a recently held open event, Margaret Adesina, Director of ICT at NOSDRA, who revealed the data, emphasized the necessity of properly monetizing gas flaring in Nigeria. She complained that from 2012 to 2021, the country spent about $14.6 billion by burning 4.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas.

"This is in addition to $8.3 billion loss in penalty for the wastage, for a total loss of $22.9 billion over the same period," she stated.
According to Mohammed Shehu, Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, the gas sector is recognized as an important economic sector that should be promoted to help boost public revenue. However, the government's indifference is untenable. The country is bankrupt, indebted, and cash strapped. Poverty and hunger are on the rise; the naira is losing ground against other currencies, and unemployment and inflation are on the rise.

Tinubu should take the lead in mobilizing all key players, particularly the organized private sector, to strategize, invest, and convert gas flare to commercial use in order to maximize the potential.

Nigeria should become a participant in the global gas revolution. According to official calculations, it possesses 209.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.

Nigeria produces a lot of hydrocarbons. Its main source of foreign money and a significant contributor to the national budget is oil and gas earnings. However, the country is negatively impacted by price swings in the global crude oil market. To do this, it is necessary to maximize the advantages of other natural resources, such gas.

Nigeria has the greatest natural gas reserves in Africa, according to a March 2023 report from the US Energy Information Administration. In terms of liquefied natural gas exporters worldwide in 2021, she was placed sixth by the Statistical Review of World Energy report from June 2022.

Nigeria continues to flare the most gas in Africa, despite a March 2023 report by the Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report showing that global gas flaring had declined by 3.0% in 2022.

In 2022, the majority of the decrease in gas flaring worldwide was attributed to three nations: Nigeria, Mexico, and the United States. According to the World Bank, two additional nations stand out for regularly reducing their flaring volumes over the past seven years: Kazakhstan and Colombia.

The top nine flaring countries are still responsible for the majority of flaring. Russia, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Venezuela, the United States, Mexico, Libya, and Nigeria account for roughly three-quarters of all flare volumes and little less than half of all global oil output.

According to experts, this wasted gas might substitute polluting energy sources, boost access to energy in some of the world's poorest countries and provide essential energy security in many countries. If used productively, the amount of gas flared in 2022 might create as much energy as Sub-Saharan Africa presently produces in a year, they claimed.

To maximize its gas potential, Nigeria must alter its economic governance framework to a more economically sound structure and utilize all available resources by providing an advantageous facilitating and regulating environment for global and domestic investment.