NUPRC takes over satellite tracker to monitor methane from oil operations
- The NUPRC has formally taken delivery of a digital platform that tracks methane emissions from oil and gas facilities.
- The tracker combines satellite detection with on-site measurements and will be shared with the downstream regulator.
- Oil companies must switch from estimated to measured emissions reporting by the first quarter of 2027.
Oil and gas operators in Nigeria will now be watched more closely on methane, the invisible gas that escapes from wells, pipelines and processing plants. The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has taken delivery of a digital platform, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Emission Tracker (NOGIET), to monitor those emissions.
The handover took place at the commission's headquarters in Abuja. The NUPRC chief executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, received it through Captain John Tonlagha, the Executive Commissioner for Health, Safety, Environment and Community (HSEC), who represented her at the event, according to a statement by the commission's Head of Media and Corporate Communications, Eniola Akinkuotu.
The platform pulls together three things: satellite images that show methane plumes in the air, maps of oil blocks and pipelines, and readings taken at the facilities themselves. Regulators can use it to spot hotspots, check whether what operators report matches what the satellites see, and decide where to send inspectors.
Why it matters
Methane traps far more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term, and it leaks during routine oil and gas work. Nigeria has promised to cut its methane emissions by 60 per cent by 2035, stop routine gas flaring and reach net-zero by 2060. The tracker is meant to help the country show real progress rather than rely on figures supplied by the companies themselves.
Under the commission's 2022 guidelines on fugitive methane and greenhouse gases, operators must move from estimating their emissions to measuring them by the first quarter of 2027. The new platform is expected to make that switch easier to police.
NOGIET was built with the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a non-governmental group, and funded with money and expertise from the Global Methane Hub. SDN's board chairman, Inemo Samiama, said the group was giving the system to the commission free of charge.
SDN hands over NOGIET in full, front end and back end, at no cost to the Commission.
He said the platform would move from its temporary address at nogiet.ng to a subdomain owned by the commission. Samiama also explained why the design covers the whole industry: methane does not stop at the line between upstream and downstream operations, so one system serves both regulators.
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) will also use the platform, which the commission said would help the two agencies coordinate their monitoring.
Eyesan said the tracker fits the commission's push to digitise its work and would make emissions data more credible and consistent.
What happens next
The test will be in the integration. The platform's usefulness depends on how well it is plugged into the commission's monitoring and data systems, on the quality of information operators supply, and on whether regulators act when the data shows a problem. The first real deadline is the measurement-based reporting requirement in early 2027.
