A coalition of Civil Society Organisations has warned that Nigeria is losing an estimated five hundred million Dollars annually to wasted flare of gas and risks heavy carbon tariffs on gas exports to the European Union if urgent methane reforms are not implemented by early 2026.
The coalition, including the Natural Resource Governance Institute, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, Healthy Life Development Initiative amongst others submitted a memorandum on Policy Push on Methane Regulation in Nigeria to the National Assembly and key environmental and petroleum regulatory bodies such as Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, NCCC, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA and National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA.
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The memo, which outlined eleven actionable reforms to fix legal and regulatory gaps in methane management, highlighted weak penalties, overlapping agency roles and poor data verification as major challenges.
The groups are calling on regulators to strengthen enforcement, revise outdated fines, clarify agency mandates and ensure transparent reporting on gas flaring and methane emissions.
They stressed that urgent action is needed to protect Nigeria’s environment, secure its energy revenues and uphold its commitments under the Global Methane Pledge.
