The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Enforcement of Zero Gas Flaring Regime in Nigeria

NNPC in joint venture partnerships with international oil corporations (IOCs) from the United States of America, Britain, France and the Netherlands flared 514,779,616 standard cubic feet (scf) of associated gas out of 619,032,858 scf of total associated gas flared in 2011. This is because NNPC lays emphasis on maximisation of oil revenues over adequate financing of gas utilisation facilities. Available records indicate that NNPC and its partners in the oil joint ventures prioritised profits and revenues through increase in oil production without limiting oil production to the gas utilisation capacity required to meet policy deadline. Regrettably, flaring of associated gas has global and local environmental, economic and health implications. Thus, by adopting the rentier state theory, and qualitative method that relied on secondary sources of data, the study concludes that inadequate funding of NNPC's participation in oil joint venture partnerships constrained the financing of associated gas (AG) utilisation facilities resulting in the failure of enforcement of the zero-gas flaring policy in Nigeria