In collaboration with Carbon Limits Nigeria, ICA-Finance has actively been involved in the development of flare reduction projects in Nigeria. The Egbaoma flare gas recovery project located in the Niger Delta is one of the two, and is implemented by the Platform Petroleum/Newcross JV.
The Egbaoma flare gas recovery project was commissioned in early 2021 and is currently bringing some 18 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) to markets for productive use. As gas infrastructure in the Niger Delta has expanded, a new gas transmission gas pipeline closer to the field is now in place, which serves as the connection point for the gas. The principal use of the gas is for power generation and as such it has important economic, social, and environmental benefits.
The project brings important sustainable development benefits to a region which suffers from instability and under-development. The project contributes considerable amounts of CO2e in annual emission reductions representing a large share of Nigeria’s efforts in eliminating routine gas flaring by 2030.
The project was initially developed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. It was registered under the CDM in 2010, but the project development work was stopped when the prospects for carbon co-financing disappeared following the carbon credit price collapse in 2012-2013. The project development work resumed with the launch of the offset mechanism under the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) of the European Union. This offset mechanism moved the project from being commercially unattractive to becoming financially viable.