From pages 10, 11 & 12 of Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles Background report to the Erratum of Shells Annual Report 2010
The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.
The gas flares of Nigeria
Below the surface, crude oil is often found mixed with natural gas. The natural gas must be separated from the oil during extraction. Technically the gas can easily be captured and utilized. In Nigeria, however, the associated gas is primitively flared in the open air. Rushing for oil exports in the 1960s and 1970s, Shell and the Nigerian government only built oil pipelines. They didn’t care about infrastructure to utilize the valuable natural gas: just burn it. There are currently approximately 100 continuously burning gas flares in the Niger Delta and just offshore, some of which have been burning since the early 1960s.