Platform Petroleum Limited, a leading indigenous oil and gas producing Company in Nigeria has successfully registered the nation’s fourth Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project.

The project, Recovery and marketing of gas that would otherwise be flared at the Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field in Nigeria with reference number 3740, was registered on the 16th of October 2010.

The CDM project activity will recover the dry associated gas that is currently, and in the future would be, flared at the Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field and deliver it to the Nigerian domestic market for productive use as an energy product. The project activity comprises installation of new compression facilities adjacent to the Umutu oil facilities and 45 km pipeline to transport the gas from the Asuokpu/Umutu marginal field to the existing gas system at Kwale. The new compression facilities will bring the pressure of the excess gas up from 250 psig to 1,200 psig in order to allow it to be piped through the new gas pipeline to Kwale and from there further into the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) gas network for beneficial use primarily within the Niger Delta.

According to the Honourable Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey and the Designated National Authority in the Special Climate Change Unit of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Dr. Victor Fodeke, the CDM project activity will not only contribute to the sustainable development of Nigeria by providing reliable gas supplies to strengthen the national electrical system; but will result in greenhouse gas emission reduction in country. And also has the potential to improve national resource management by full utilization of the energy resources produced at the field (oil, natural gas liquids and gas); increase employment of the local community by additional jobs at the field facilities; and support the country’s gas flare-out policy.

The project, Nigeria’s third gas project and the fourth registered CDM for the country was one of the three new CDM projects that was registered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the 16th of October 2010.
Platform Petroleum, a strategic partner of the Climate Change Unit of the Federal Ministry of Environment, operates a full-cycle, integrated Oil and Gas Production, Processing and Marketing Chain.

Platform Petroleum Limited won the bid for the Asuokpu/Umutu Marginal Field located in block OML 38. After executing a farm-out agreement with the previous concessionary (Shell/NNPC JV) in 2004, the field was handed over to Platform in November 2004. On April 1, 2005, Platform executed a Joint Venture Agreement with Newcross Petroleum Limited. Resulting in a 60/40 equity ownership of the field with Platform remaining the operator (Platform Newcross JV).

At the moment there is neither an existing gas market in the near vicinity of the Asuokpu/Umutu field nor any existing gas transmission lines. Platform Newcross JV is currently finalizing the design of the infrastructure needed to implement a marketing option for surplus gas from the field. The installation and operation of this infrastructure is the proposed CDM project activity.

The primary benefit of the proposed CDM project activity is the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases from flaring and the productive use of the recovered gas.
Given the scale of gas flaring in Nigeria (estimated by the World Bank to flare the second largest amount of gas in the world) this will serve as an important step in using CDM to address this crucial climate issue. Further as Platform is a Nigerian owned and run company, it signifies the ability of local Nigerian companies and the society to participate in CDM and the Kyoto Protocol.

The recovered gas is planned to be used to further economic development in the Niger Delta, a region that has suffered from both environmental problems and under-development. The successful implementation of this project will contribute to improving this situation.