Shell to continue gas flaring in Nigeria a year beyond deadline

Shell expects to continue a controversial process called flaring a year beyond a deadline set by the Nigerian government, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said. Gas flaring is the highly polluting process of burning off natural gas trapped in crude oil. The Nigerian government has set a target of 2008 for the end of continuous flaring.
In Shell's annual environment and social report, it said: "We now expect to stop continuous flaring during 2009, as we complete construction of the final gas-gathering facilities."

Shell is to collect gas from more than 1,000 oil wells scattered across the Niger Delta to be processed in LNG plants or used for power generation. But "the effort is behind schedule because of past underfunding by our government partner and delays by (Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria) in implementing projects," it said in the report.
State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Co. controls 55 % of SPDC, which is operated and 30 %-owned by Shell. Total has a 10 % stake and Agipholds 5 %.

The company said it expects to shut 17 low production fields during 2008 where it won't have found permanent solutions for the associated gas. By the end of 2004, SPDC "had invested $ 2 bn and was gathering 33 % of its associated gas," Shell said.
"It expects to spend another $ 1.85 bn to capture the rest from increasingly remote or smaller wells," it added.