"The absolute deadline ... would be certainly within the term of this administration," Odein Ajumogobia told AFP, referring to 2011. He added that 2010 was still the target date.

Flaring, the practice of burning gas extracted alongside oil, constitutes a serious environmental threat.

In theory, flaring has been illegal in Nigeria since 1979, but companies have been granted exemptions year after year, allowing them to continue.

In December, a ban that was supposed to take effect on January 1 was postponed.

Nigeria wants to halt flaring as quickly as possible, Ajumogobia said.

"We will implement policies to reduce flaring and achieve flare out as quickly as possible, but we recognise that there are investments to be made and rather than just legislate a new flare out date ... we want to engage and ensure that whatever date we finally decide on is practicable," he said.

"We've already imposed regulation that ensures that all new projects will be zero-flare. So it's now (the time) to try to take out the existing flares," he explained.

The minister emphasised the importance of limiting the impact of the possible closure of some oil production sites on revenues.

Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest crude producer, has seen its oil income shrink with the drop in world crude prices.

Its daily production has also fallen to 1.78 million barrels per day (bpd) from 2.6 million bpd in 2006 because of the unrest in its southern regions where oil resources are concentrated.

"All associated gas flared could be put out within the week if we were willing to defer production, but obviously that may not be a prudent course to take at this time given the other constraints we have," Ajumogobia said.

Nigeria accounts for 13 percent of the gas flared worldwide, according to climate specialists.

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