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Gas flares

One of the hundreds of gas flares that are scatered accross the Niger Delta.
Photo: George Osodi

Learn more about the devastating and wasteful practice of flaring perfectly useful natural gas, burning millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year in the Niger Delta.

Gas flaring was declared illegal in Nigeria in 1985 but has continued to date.

SDN campaigns for companies to end gas flaring and to turn the natural gas instead into energy for local people who suffer most from the explitation of their land.

Case study - The effect of gas flares on local people

Akala-Olu is a community in the oil producing Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. It is a rural community where the locals carry out subsistence farming as their main source of livelihood.

It is also home to the Akala-Olu gas flare owned by the Nigerian Oil Company AGIP which bellows out a continuous plume of thick smoke across the surrounding area.

Slideshow - Living under the shadow of a gas flare

Watch this slideshow showing what life is like for those who live in Akala-Olu, home to one one of Italian oil company AGIP's gas flares.

Understanding gas flaring and its alternatives

The amount of natural gas burned into the atmosphere each year in Nigeria equates to 30% of the UK's North Sea gas production or 23 times that of the yearly consumption by Washington DC.

This article explains the extent of the problem and shows how turning the gas into useable energy for local people is a viable and sensible option that could help bring peace and stability to the region.

Watch Poison Fire, the documentary film by Lars Johansson

Africa, oil, climate change, globalisation, repression, violence, rights. Poison fire shows some of the world's most urgent challenges in a microcosm - the strained relationship between the oil industry and local communities in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

CNN Video report on gas flaring

Watch this short video news report from CNN explaining gas flaring in the Niger Delta.