For years, residents of Obite, Obagi and neighbouring communities in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State have watched flames rise above TotalEnergies’ oil services, illuminating the night time and, they are saying, altering the lives of individuals residing closest to the corporate’s operations.
The flames didn’t disappear after TotalEnergies introduced that it had achieved what it described as a landmark environmental milestone. Instead, residents instructed PREMIUM TIMES that the flaring continued.
In July, PREMIUM TIMES visited communities round Oil Mining Lease 58, TotalEnergies’ principal onshore asset in Nigeria, and noticed flare stacks burning days and nights.
At the corporate’s facility in Obite, two flare stacks had been seen. One burned with a big, intense flame whereas one other produced a smaller flame. At Obagi, residence to the Obagi Oil Field, PREMIUM TIMES noticed two different flare stacks burning repeatedly in the course of the interval our reporter visited.
TotalEnergies in its personal public disclosures determine December 2023 as the purpose at which routine flaring was eradicated from OML 100, which it described because the final Nigerian asset the place routine flaring remained.
But knowledge reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, area observations and accounts from residents point out that substantial flaring exercise has continued round OML 58 for the reason that announcement. Other authorities knowledge additionally present that fuel flare has elevated on one other upstream asset of TotalEnergies after the announcement.
The firm has not defined the particular classification of the flaring noticed by PREMIUM TIMES as its officers didn’t reply to repeated requests for clarification, leaving a vital a part of the corporate’s environmental claim untested.
The statement doesn’t, by itself, set up that the corporate has continued routine flaring in breach of its dedication. TotalEnergies distinguishes routine flaring from non-routine and security flaring, and flare exercise can happen for causes aside from routine disposal of related fuel.
However, the corporate has not supplied the asset-level knowledge, classification information or regulatory documentation wanted to independently set up what the flames noticed round OML 58 are. That hole is on the coronary heart of this investigation.
The observations elevate a query about one of the vital outstanding environmental claims made by the French vitality large in Nigeria: if routine flaring ended throughout TotalEnergies’ Nigerian operations in 2023, what precisely are the flames that communities proceed to see?
The promise
On 2 December 2023 at COP28 in Dubai, TotalEnergies joined 49 different oil and fuel corporations that signed the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter.
The constitution commits signatories to purpose for net-zero operational emissions by or earlier than 2050, near-zero upstream methane emissions by 2030 and the elimination of routine flaring by 2030. It additionally requires emissions monitoring, reporting and verification and improved alignment with business greatest practices.
TotalEnergies moved rapidly to showcase its progress in Nigeria the place it operates 5 belongings; OML 58, 99, 100, 102, and 130.
On 18 December 2023, throughout a gathering with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné announced that the corporate had ended routine fuel flaring throughout its operations in Nigeria.
The firm’s definition of routine flaring aligns with the definition contained within the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) Gas Flaring, Venting and Methane Emissions Regulations 2023.
TotalEnergies defines routine flaring as flaring throughout regular manufacturing operations the place there are inadequate services or insufficient geological situations to reinject, use or promote the fuel produced.
NUPRC equally distinguishes routine flaring from security flaring, expressly stating that routine flaring doesn’t embody security flaring, even the place security flaring is steady.
But the Nigerian rules additionally create a class of what they describe as “Non-Routine Flaring”.
Under the rules, non-routine flaring covers flaring aside from routine flaring and is often intermittent and of brief period, whether or not deliberate or unplanned.
The class contains non permanent failure of apparatus dealing with fuel throughout regular operations, non permanent failure of services that forestalls receipt of flare fuel, security flaring, preliminary plant or area start-up, start-up after shutdowns, scheduled preventive upkeep and inspections, building actions and adjustments in working situations.
It additionally covers course of upsets requiring flaring to stabilise a course of, reservoir or nicely upkeep actions, and exploration, appraisal or production-well testing or clean-up following drilling or work-over actions.
That means the existence of flames at OML 58 doesn’t, by itself, invalidate TotalEnergies’ declaration. Yet, it makes one other query unavoidable.
If routine flaring has ended, what regulatory class applies to the flare exercise that is still? How continuously does it happen? What triggers the flare? How lengthy does every flare final? How a lot fuel is being burned? And has NUPRC verified the operator’s classification?
Those are questions that may solely be answered via asset-level operational and regulatory information.
If routine flaring has ended, communities, regulators and the general public ought to be capable of decide how persevering with flare occasions are labeled, they need to be defined to why the flares from the 4 stacks of their neighborhood has not been “intermittent and of short duration” as supplied within the regulation, they need to decide how a lot fuel is concerned and whether or not they adjust to regulatory necessities.
However, the unresolved query is whether or not the persistent flames at the least round OML 58 which is definitely accessible in contrast to its offshore and deep water belongings are genuinely occasional security or non-routine flares, or whether or not some characterize continued routine flaring below one other classification.
Community ready for the promised change
At Ogbogwu neighborhood, Ndenso Okwuikpo lives shut sufficient to a TotalEnergies facility to observe the flare from his residence.
He stated he has seen no significant discount within the depth of the flaring for the reason that firm introduced the top of routine flaring.
His bigger household, he stated, donated greater than 150 hectares of land to TotalEnergies in anticipation that oil operations would carry employment and financial alternatives.
Instead, he stated, the neighborhood has been “rewarded” with air pollution. “Our farmland aren’t yielding well because of the heat in this area. That is the reward we get from the land we gave to them” he stated.
Mr Okwuikpo stated he had developed critical issues together with his sight over the previous 4 years and spends cash on treatment that he would in any other case have used to help his household.
He stated residents had anticipated the corporate’s 2023 announcement to carry reduction.
“We heard since 2023 that they will stop flaring. We were very happy. But since we heard that, nothing has happened. The gas burns day and night and it has never stopped even for an hour.”
His account, nevertheless, shouldn’t be backed by proof that his eye situation is attributable to the flaring locally. Nevertheless, his expertise factors to a priority expressed by residents in regards to the results of residing beside oil-production infrastructure.
For one other resident, Hannah Igila, her concern is the warmth emitted from the flare which she stated burns day and night time. Ms Igila stated this causes sleep problem for households that don’t have followers, particularly at night time.
At Obite, 84-year-old conventional chief locally, Ebiere Ejah remembers a time earlier than TotalEnergies’ operations modified the panorama across the neighborhood.
He complained in regards to the impact of the flare on agriculture.
Mr Ejah stated Obite was as soon as identified for a wide range of cocoyam domestically known as Indian cocoyam. He stated the crop might not thrive due to the warmth across the neighborhood. “Even our cassava isn’t fruitful due to the heat from the gas flared day and night,” he stated.
He additionally complained about what he described as polluted rainwater and pores and skin irritation amongst residents.
At Obagi, the flame is a part of the terrain
At Obagi, residents stated the scenario is much more troublesome to reconcile with the corporate’s environmental claims.
Oil manufacturing within the area started a long time in the past. Many residents stated they had been born right into a neighborhood the place the flare was already a part of the neighborhood surroundings.
Michael Kio, a excessive chief locally and a household chief representing Obagi in Egi Clan, stated his Umuokporo household has 32 oil wells positioned on its land.
Yet, he stated, the household stays poor whereas residing beside oil infrastructure.
“All we get from TotalEnergies is the continuous destruction of our environment through the nonstop gas flare,” he stated.
“We heard news some years ago that this gas they burn will end, but we haven’t seen it end till date. They keep burning our lives,” Mr Kio added.
At the Obagi Primary Health Centre, the official in control of the power, Osam Augustine, stated residents continuously arrive with complaints involving itchy eyes, pores and skin irritation and chest ache accompanied by cough.
“There is no month we don’t have complaints about itchy eyes, at least 20 in a month,” he stated.
He stated complaints of itchy our bodies had been extra frequent and that chest ache accompanied by cough was additionally frequent.
At the Obite Primary Health Centre, the officer in cost, Vatican Nwoke reported related complaints.
She stated she personally experiences itchy eyes accompanied by discharge and estimated that the power receives about 15 instances of itchy eyes and 17 instances of itchy physique complaints every month.
Ms Nwoke stated chest ache was extra frequent, with at the least 20 instances month-to-month.
“These communities need proper epidemiological studies,” Ms Nwoke stated in substance, evaluating the complaints she sees with the experiences of colleagues working in communities the place fuel shouldn’t be being flared.
The well being staff didn’t present scientific proof establishing fuel flaring as the reason for the complaints. Their testimony as an alternative paperwork the well being burden they are saying is repeatedly offered on the services.
Yet, scientific proof offers credence to the considerations repeatedly raised by host communities.
A examine revealed by the National Library of Medicine recognized eye irritation and chest ache among the many most continuously reported well being situations in communities uncovered to fuel flaring within the Niger Delta.
Another examine revealed within the West African Journal of Medicine discovered growing greater charges of chest ache, respiration difficulties, pores and skin irritation and eye irritation amongst individuals residing close to flare websites than these residing farther away.
Data reveals extra
Available regulatory and satellite tv for pc knowledge present one other piece of the image.
Data revealed by NUPRC present that TotalEnergies, via its Nigerian working entities, flared 4,395.75 million MSCF of fuel in 2024, inserting the corporate thirteenth amongst 46 corporations reported within the dataset.
The identical NUPRC knowledge present that TotalEnergies utilised 418,231.37 million MSCF of fuel in 2024, rating second among the many corporations listed.
However, the figures doesn’t seize what occurred at particular person belongings.
An evaluation of information from the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency’s Gas Flare Tracker, which makes use of satellite tv for pc observations of flare exercise was capable of seize fuel flaring from TotalEnergies two belongings; OML 58 and 130 deepwaters asset.
NOSDRA knowledge signifies that OML 58 recorded 10.1 million MSCF of flaring in 2022. The determine rose to 10.6 million MSCF in 2023 earlier than falling to 7.9 million MSCF in 2024. In 2025, nevertheless, the estimated quantity returned to 10 million MSCF.
Flare volumes recorded round OML 130 remained under 6.2 million MSCF in 2022 and 2023, earlier than rising to 7.9 million MSCF in 2025.
The sample failed to point out a sustained disappearance of flare exercise after TotalEnergies’ December 2023 announcement.
TotalEnergies commitments versus Methane query
Beyond seen flames, there are considerations round TotalEnergies methane disclosures.
Methane is the first part of pure fuel and a extremely potent greenhouse fuel.
TotalEnergies has set world targets to scale back methane emissions from its operated belongings by 80 p.c by 2030 in contrast with 2020 ranges.
In its 2026 Sustainability Climate progress report, the corporate says it achieved a 65 per cent discount globally in 2025 and is concentrating on a 70 per cent discount by 2026.
However, these figures are world operated-asset figures and don’t reveal the extent of methane emissions from TotalEnergies’ Nigerian operations to assist the nation measure its personal milestones in local weather commitments.
Yet, TotalEnergies has invested in expertise designed to detect and quantify methane. The firm stated it deployed its AUSEA drone expertise in Nigeria in 2022.
In December 2023, TotalEnergies and NNPC signed a cooperation settlement to make use of AUSEA expertise for methane detection and measurement on Nigerian oil and fuel services.
In its 2026 progress report, the corporate reported one key methane discount from its Nigerian operations noting {that a} supply of venting recognized in Nigeria was flamable cowl fuel utilized in storage tanks. It stated in December 2024, the corporate changed the flamable cowl fuel with inert nitrogen.
According to TotalEnergies, the intervention decreased emissions from 5.2 kilotonnes of methane per yr to 0.35 kilotonnes. That represents a discount of 4.85 million kilogrammes of methane yearly.
Although this can be a substantial discount from that exact supply, it isn’t a measure of TotalEnergies’ complete methane emissions in Nigeria.
A facility can cease routine flaring and nonetheless launch methane via tools leaks, venting, incomplete combustion or different sources therefore methane measurement and disclosure stay essential even the place an operator reviews zero routine flaring.
TotalEnergies Nigerian methane knowledge not publicly accessible
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (NEITI) 2022-2023 oil and fuel audit discovered that solely 15 of 62 corporations coated by the audit submitted greenhouse fuel emissions knowledge whereas 47 didn’t.
While main multinational oil corporations in Nigeria like Shell, Mobil, and Chevron submitted, TotalEnergies’ two Nigerian upstream entities; TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited and TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria Limited weren’t among the many corporations recognized as having equipped the required methane and different Greenhouse Gases (GHG) knowledge within the audit. Yet, TotalEnergies is world firm that publishes intensive world local weather knowledge and has publicly dedicated itself to methane measurement and discount.
NEITI beneficial strict enforcement, together with penalties for non-compliance, incentives for correct and well timed submissions and third-party verification of emissions knowledge. The audit additionally known as for engagement by NUPRC, the Federal Ministry of Environment and NEITI to assist corporations perceive and adjust to GHG reporting necessities.
But the regulatory framework has since develop into extra demanding because the 2023 Gas Flaring, Venting and Methane Emissions Regulations established measurement and reporting obligations for upstream operators.
In April 2026, NUPRC issued one other directive requiring operators to undertake standardised templates for GHG emissions administration plans and methane and GHG emissions accounting.
The regulator stated operators should use, at minimal, IPCC Tier 2 methodologies from the third quarter of 2026 and transition to measurement-based Tier 3 methods by January 2027.
Disclosure should match technological functionality
The Nigeria Country Director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Tengi George-Ikoli stated TotalEnergies’ reported progress needs to be welcomed, however argued that company commitments and technological functionality should be matched by clear, asset-level disclosure.
“NRGI welcomes TotalEnergies’ reported elimination of routine gas flaring from its operated Nigerian assets and its deployment of AUSEA technology to detect and quantify methane emissions,” she stated.
“But corporate commitments and technological capability must be matched by transparent, asset-level disclosure.”
Ms George-Ikoli pressured that ending routine flaring shouldn’t be confused with eliminating methane emissions.
Methane, she stated, can nonetheless escape via fugitive leaks, venting, tools failures and incomplete combustion.
“Therefore, a zero-routine-flaring claim does not remove the need to measure, report and independently verify methane emissions,” she stated.
Ms George-Ikoli stated TotalEnergies might show management by publishing its Nigeria-specific emissions outcomes and clarifying what info it had submitted to the related authorities thus permitting for unbiased evaluation of TotalEnergies’ progress.
“Voluntary corporate disclosure should complement, not replace, strong regulatory reporting and public accountability,” she stated.
The organisation known as on TotalEnergies, like different operators in Nigeria, to publish methane emissions knowledge for its Nigerian belongings, together with absolute emissions, methane depth, emission sources, services surveyed, methodologies used and corrective actions taken.
Operator, regulator that has not answered
PREMIUM TIMES sought solutions from TotalEnergies.
On 22 July, the newspaper despatched the corporate in Nigeria and its headquarters in France an in depth enquiry asking it to determine the precise date routine flaring ceased at OML 58; clarify the flare exercise noticed in the course of the newspaper’s go to to native communities in Nigeria; state whether or not the corporate had investigated residents’ claims; and make clear whether or not the noticed flaring was labeled as routine, non-routine, emergency or safety-related.
The newspaper additionally requested OML 58 flare volumes from 2021 via 2025 and for January to June 2026.
Earlier on 16 June, PREMIUM TIMES in a media enquiry requested for methane emissions knowledge, together with fugitive emissions, venting and combustion-related methane, in addition to copies of fugitive methane emissions reviews submitted to NUPRC.
The newspaper requested the corporate whether or not it had submitted methane knowledge to NEITI and, if not, why.
It additionally requested its Flare Elimination and Monetisation Plan, particulars of investments made to get rid of routine flaring, any regulatory sanctions or compliance notices, and knowledge on third-party verification of its emissions knowledge.
No response was acquired and a reminder was despatched on 26 August and one other on 21 September but the corporate nonetheless didn’t reply.
PREMIUM TIMES additionally approached NUPRC via the Commission Chief Executive, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, and Head of Media and Strategic Communication, Eniola Akinkuotu on 21 June and once more on 21 September to determine whether or not the regulator had independently assessed TotalEnergies’ declaration that routine flaring had resulted in Nigeria.
The regulator was particularly requested whether or not its evaluation supported the corporate’s claim in mild of the persistent flare exercise noticed round OML 58. NUPRC was additionally requested what motion it had taken over TotalEnergies’ failure to report methane emissions within the NEITI audit. The regulator didn’t reply to the enquiry.
NUPRC’s silence shouldn’t be an remoted prevalence.
In a PREMIUM TIMES investigation revealed in September, Oil corporations violate Nigerian legal guidelines, flare fuel, face no sanctions, this newspaper additionally sought solutions from NUPRC on regulatory enforcement. The regulator didn’t reply to questions. The sample can be evident in PREMIUM TIMES’ July investigation, Gas flares, poisoned lives, regulatory failures in Nigeria’s oil fields, which sought info from NUPRC on operator compliance and regulatory enforcement. NUPRC didn’t reply to the enquiries.
The regulator’s repeated refusal to supply a response raises an accountability query.
For a regulator answerable for imposing guidelines on flaring, venting and methane emissions, the general public must know whether or not investigations are being performed, what they’ve discovered and what motion follows when operators fail to adjust to commitments and guidelines.
Without that info, it turns into troublesome for communities and the general public to evaluate whether or not public declarations and guidelines are being enforced.
What the silence leaves unanswered
The silence leaves a tougher drawback.
Visible flare exercise stays round OML 58 after the corporate declared that routine flaring had ended throughout its Nigerian operations.
Satellite knowledge point out that flare exercise in OML 58 and 130 didn’t disappear or scale back considerably after the announcement.
Residents say the flames stay a part of on a regular basis life, whereas well being staff report recurring complaints from individuals residing near the services. NUPRC’s company-level knowledge present that TotalEnergies continued to report substantial fuel volumes flared in 2024, however the knowledge don’t disclose ample asset-level info to find out what quantity got here from OML 58, its different 4 operated belongings or how particular person flare occasions had been labeled.
And TotalEnergies has not supplied PREMIUM TIMES with the operational and emissions information that would resolve the discrepancy, leaving a vital query unanswered: If routine flaring has ended, what precisely are communities seeing day and night time and who has independently verified the scenario?
Without verifiable information and solutions from the operator and regulator, the general public is left with two competing realities: a company declaration of zero routine flaring and a bodily panorama wherein flames stay seen all day and night time.
READ ALSO: Nigeria among top nine world’s gas-flaring countries in 2025 — World Bank
Claims need to be interrogated – Experts
The Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation and Environmental Activist, Nnimmo Bassey, stated the obvious contradiction is proof that public claims by oil corporations and authorities businesses should be examined in opposition to situations on the bottom.
“When TotalEnergies say that they have stopped routine flaring yet flaring is taking place around their facilities in the community it is simply a cover up,” Mr Bassey stated.
He stated the federal government and oil corporations ought to show environmental commitments via measurable motion relatively than declarations.
Head of Energy, Extractives and Climate Justice Programme at Policy Alert, Edidiong Dickson, stated the case factors to weaknesses in emissions reporting that should be addressed.
Mr Dickson stated area observations from oil-producing communities counsel that emissions claims by some operators could not all the time be readily reconciled with situations on the bottom.
He known as for improved monitoring by NUPRC and involvement of communities in emissions info.
According to him, claims by operators should be interrogated by the regulator, significantly the place out there proof from communities and different monitoring methods raises questions.
This Investigation is supported by We The People
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