The Fire We Pay For: Measuring the Energy, Health and Climate Cost of Gas Flaring in the Niger Delta, and How to Stop It

For more than sixty years, oil companies in the Niger Delta have burned the natural gas that comes up with crude oil. Nigeria's regulator reported 323 billion standard cubic feet flared in 2025, 7.2% more than in 2024. This proposal turns that number into quantities people can feel. It carries about 341 petajoules of energy, as much as 591 million 12.5 kg cooking-gas cylinders, enough for 49 million households at one cylinder a month. That is 21 times the methane Nigeria could get from every cassava peel it produces. If the flares destroy methane only as well as measured flares in the United States, the escaping methane adds about 13 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year on top of the CO2 from burning. Health studies link living near flares to hypertension and childhood respiratory illness. The proposal sets out a measurement and commercialisation plan.