The United Kingdom (UK) Government, through the Department for International Development (DFID) and its civil society partner Stakeholder Democracy Network’s latest (SDN), is proud to have partnered with the Ministry of Environment and Nigeria’s oil spills environmental regulator (NOSDRA) to produce this innovative gas flare tracker, which is being launched today.
Gas flaring occurs in the Niger Delta due to the burning of associated gas during the oil production process. This happens despite a context where Nigeria’s power supply is constrained by a lack of available gas.  The Gas Flare tracker is a transparent system that provides data and insights that will help guide regulation, incentives and investment aimed at reducing gas flaring and its impacts. Gas flaring releases an estimated 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Existing Nigerian legislation aimed to see it abolished by 1984.
The tracker is an online map that displays a number of physical/ geophysical GIS layers alongside satellite data on gas flares collected by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The British High Commissioner, His Excellency Dr Andrew Pocock CMG, welcomed the launch of this tool and called for closer UK-Nigeria cooperation on environmental work, saying, “The gas flare tracker shows everybody not just the environmental benefits of tackling gas flaring, but also the financial benefits. With so much to gain, we look forward to working further with Nigeria on this and other climate-related issues”.