Economic Sustainability and Gas Flaring in Nigeria

Abstract

The crude oil exploration leads to the flaring gas, which affects Nigerian economic sustainability. The empirical study is to inquire about the profitable (economic) sustainability of the flaring of natural gaseous substances in Nigeria. The survey is to employ the ready-made design through the National Bureau of Statistics, Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, Department of Petroleum Resources, and World Development Indicators. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Augmented Dickey-Fuller test are employed as the estimation technique and unit root test for long-range presence association between the exogenous and explained variables. The findings of the study showed an insignificantly positive outcome of profitable (economic) growth on natural gas flaring in Nigeria. The current employment rate showed a positively insignificant impact on the gas flare. The current oil revenue value showed a positively significant impact on gas flaring. Meanwhile, the oil revenue lag showed an insignificantly negative impact on Nigerian naturally flared gaseous substances. The research recommends that the relevant natural gas authorities should put in place stringent laws to reduce the flaring of natural gas consequences to the well-being of humans, the environment, and the economic growth and development of the country. Alternatively, the government should encourage sound and viable gas flaring processes of industrial and domestic usage.