• Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • Rss

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Skip navigation

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Global Energy Law & Regulation Portal

Join OGELFORUM

Oil, Gas & Energy Law

Global Energy Law & Regulation Portal

  • Sign in
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • Sign in
  • About About
    1. Home
    2. About
    3. About OGEL
    4. About OGEL
    5. Founding Editor T.W. Wälde
    6. T.W. Wälde
    7. Editorial team
    8. Editorial team
    9. Contributing Authors
    10. Contributing Authors
    11. Subscriptions
    12. Subscriptions
  • Journal Journal
    1. Home
    2. Journal
    3. Browse Issues
    4. Browse
    5. Articles by Category
    6. By Category
    7. Articles by Author
    8. By Author
    9. Advance publication
    10. Advance publication
    11. Specials
    12. Specials
    13. Search
    14. Search
    15. Book reviews
    16. Reviews
  • Legal & Regulatory docs. L & R docs
    1. Home
    2. Legal & Regulatory docs.
    3. L&R by Country
    4. L&R by Country
    5. L&R by Category
    6. L&R by Category
    7. L&R recent additions
    8. L&R recent additions
    9. Search
    10. Search
  • OGELFORUM OGELFORUM
    1. Home
    2. OGELFORUM
    3. About OGELFORUM
    4. About OGELFORUM
    5. Browse archive
    6. Browse by date / topic
    7. Search
    8. Search
    9. Join
    10. Join
  • News & Events Events
    1. Home
    2. News & Events
    3. News
    4. News
    5. Events
    6. Events
  • OGEL Studies OGEL Studies
    1. Home
    2. OGEL Studies
    3. About OGEL Studies
    4. About OGEL Studies
  • Subscribe
Home > Journal > Advance publication

The Problem of Gas Flaring - A Review of Current Legal and Policy Efforts in the UK and Nigeria

  • Sign in
  • Suggested citation
L. Moller
L. Moller
J.I. Mohammed
J.I. Mohammed

Published 30 November 2021

Abstract

The flaring of gas and consequent carbon dioxide emissions from oil and gas installations is a significant environmental problem in many countries and a key contributor to global warming and climate change. The process consumes useful natural resources and produces harmful waste that negatively impacts the environment and the economy. Although loosely prohibited in many countries, the global industry continues to flare a substantial amount of associated gas during exploration and production activities. Current data on global gas flaring indicates that gas flaring occurs in most oil and gas producing countries, including the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Nigeria is regarded as the seventh-largest gas flaring nation in the world, and gas flaring seems to be a major problem, despite having relevant laws in place. The oil and gas industry in the UK has managed to reduce flaring and venting significantly, with the independent regulator, in collaboration with environmental agencies, adopting a much more rigorous approach to hold the industry to account for their commitment to halving their production emissions by 2030 as a pivotal part of the government's target for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Comparing the regulatory efforts in these two countries forms the crux of this article. While the UK's regime is generally regarded as well developed, robust and effective in dealing with flaring, it appears that Nigeria still needs to do much more to tackle the menace of flaring. Consequently, the paper critically reviews the law and policy regimes for the regulation of gas flaring and enhancing gas utilisation in these two countries. It explains how the regulatory regimes emerged including key strengths and weaknesses, and it also discusses the international dimension in terms of the overall UN Climate Change agenda. The paper employs a doctrinal methodology approach involving a review of industry and library-based literature for a critical analysis of the effectiveness of the regulatory regime for gas flaring and venting in the UK and Nigeria. This discussion highlights useful lessons from the UK’s experience, for countries such as Nigeria where enforcement of the existing anti-gas flaring laws and regulations has been weak as there is still a considerable amount of gas that is being flared due to ineffective regulatory practices. Though in recent years data have shown that the county has reduced gas flaring by almost 70%, and in 2021 finally passed the long-awaited controversial Petroleum Industry Bill into law which provides some clarity on gas flaring, nevertheless there is still room for improving the regulatory framework. This paper concludes with a caution that Nigeria's new framework may not likely achieve its goal unless a more professional and independent regulator adopt a transparent, robust and rigorous approach to regulation, with the supporting political will and mindset of all stakeholders, in order to effectively enforce the extant anti-gas flaring regulations.

This paper will be part of the OGEL Special Issue on "Law and Policy for Gas Flaring in a Low-carbon Economy". More information here www.ogel.org/news.asp?key=660

To read this article you need to be a subscriber

Sign in

Forgot password?

Sign in

Subscribe

Fill in the registration form and answer a few simple questions to receive a quote.

Subscribe now

Suggested Citation

L. Moller; J.I. Mohammed (2021, forthcoming) "The Problem of Gas Flaring - A Review of Current Legal and Policy Efforts in the UK and Nigeria"
(OGEL, ISSN 1875-418X) November 2021, www.ogel.org

"Advance publication" is the name given to material that is published ahead of its appearance in a regular structured issue of our Journal. It is also possible to monitor this via RSS. Subscribers will receive update alerts via e-mail of the published articles as soon as they have been added to the website.

Other recently published material:

China's State-controlled Approach to Cross-provincial Gas Pipeline Planning

7 February 2023

Addendum OGEL 5 (2022) - Lessons Learned from the Energy Activities in the Gulf of Mexico Region as a Guide for Accelerating and Financing Energy Activities in the Atlantic Region during the Energy Addition

7 February 2023

Changing the Conversation on Energy Transition - Aligning Interests or Mandating Actions to Combat Climate Change in Challenging Times

1 February 2023

Addendum OGEL 5 (2022) - WTO Law on Subsidies and Local Content Rules in the Offshore Renewable Energy Sector

16 January 2023

The Domestication of the Principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources in the Tanzania Petroleum Industry: The Move Towards Nationalism is it a Sovereign Right or Wrong?

10 January 2023

Complete listing of Advance publication.

Call for contributions

OGEL Call for Papers: Carbon Capture and Storage

Professor Tara Righetti and Dr. Matteo Fermeglia

  • Professor Tara Righetti
  • Dr. Matteo Fermeglia

OGEL Call for Papers: The Impact of the War in Ukraine on the Energy Sector

Agnieszka Ason, Konstantin Christie, Prof. Kim Talus

  • Agnieszka Ason
  • Konstantin Christie
  • Kim Talus

OGEL Call for Papers: Energy Market Creation: Liberalisations and Transformations

Prof. Kim Talus

  • Kim Talus

Call for Papers: OGEL Energy Law Journal 2023

Call for Papers: OGEL Energy Law Journal 2023

OGEL Editorial Team

  • More
  • Contribute

Stay connected

Sign up for our email alerts.

  • Issues
  • Advance publication
  • News
  • Linkedin
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Join the debate

Want to join OGELFORUM, our unique platform for oil, gas and energy issues?

Simply fill in the registration form to start your trial membership.

Download the app

  1. App store
  2. Google play

The Oil, Gas & Energy Law Intelligence (OGEL, ISSN 1875-418X) Journal and OGELFORUM listserv focus on recent developments in the area of oil, gas, energy law, regulation, treaties, judicial and arbitral cases, voluntary guidelines, tax and contracting, including the oil, gas, energy geopolitics. Read our Terms & Conditions here, and our Privacy Policy here.

About OGEL

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contribute
  • Subscriptions
  • Contact
  • Help

Other publications

  • Transnational Dispute Management (TDM)

© 2004 - 2023. Published by MARIS.

  • Home
  • Contribute
  • Subscriptions
  • Contact
  • Help