The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has pledged to continue partnering with Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a United Kingdom-based civil society organisation, to attain its ultimate goal of a clean and sustainable environment for the country and the world.
The Director General of NOSDRA, Chukwuemeka Woke, stated this when he received the Executive Director of the Network, Adam Heal, who led a delegation to pay him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.
Woke said NOSDRA was committed to working with the organisation, host communities, and the oil and gas industry to tackle the menace of environmental pollution and degradation in the country’s oil-producing areas and called for continued collaboration, which the agency has enjoyed in the past.
Woke said the prototype Methane Tracker designed by SDN will significantly contribute to tracking methane emissions in the oil and gas sector.
“Like you said, you have also supported the Nigerian Gas Flare Tracker. Let me tell you, this has helped the agency to make significant contributions towards our country’s climate change journey. So we are indeed grateful to your organisation.
“And also inform you that the Prototype Emitting Tracker that we developed has also gone a long way in generating data from the platform, which is serving as an input to Nigerian carbon emissions submission through the Department of Climate Change. This has helped the activities of the oil and gas industry.
“So we have no reason not to continue our relationship with you. What you have done is to enhance our performance. We have a mandate, and our mandate is to ensure a clean environment in our country.
“Your support and collaboration have enhanced that performance, so we continue. Our ultimate goal is to see a clean and sustainable environment for our country, Nigeria, and of course indeed to the world all over,” he added.
In his remarks, the SDN boss, Heal, said the organisation had been operating in Nigeria for the past 20 years, providing monitoring and policy advisory work in Nigeria and economic diversification in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.
While stating that NOSDRA had been a reliable partner with SDN for over a decade, he said: “We have been working with other regulators like NOSDRA to cooperate with oil and gas companies to help respond to the emissions, fix the problem, and reduce the impact on the environment. So we are currently building a prototype satellite-based methane tracker.”
