Nigeria’s petroleum regulator has shortlisted 139 companies for the next stage of the country’s gas flaring commercialisation programme, according to the Chief Executive, Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe.

Komolafe in a statement said out of the 300 companies that applied, 139 had been shortlisted to proceed to the next stage of the programme.

The exercise, according to him, is furtherance  to the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 to reduce carbon emissions.

In September, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources said plans were at an advanced stage to commercialise gas burned from its oil fields to help cut 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Recalled that 300 companies had registered their interest to revalidate their pre-qualification status and submit statement of Qualification (SOG) as existing bidders and new participants respectively.

“Following successful conclusion of the SOQ evaluation exercise conducted by the bid evaluation team, a total of 139 applicants were deemed successful and awarded the qualified applicant status in line with the provision of the Request for Qualification (RFQ)”, he stated