Oscarline Onwuemenyi
14 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi has urged investors to embrace construction of infrastructure for Compressed Natural Gas across the country.
Amaechi, who made the appeal at the stakeholders’ workshop on Road Transport Management and Mass Transit Operations held in Abuja, said that the investments would boost the use of natural gas as an alternative for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) for road transportation.
He said that to enhance the use of gas in the country, petroleum agencies and private companies must provide the needed infrastructure.
“For CNG to be successful, we must deal with the first issue, which is gas infrastructure, if there is no pipeline in Kano, how can we take CNG to Kano. If they say that we should invest in CNG, the government must be ready to invest in gas infrastructure, meaning that everyone should have access to it on ground.
“Apart from the cost reduction, it is environment-friendly, so when the infrastructure is on ground, we can now introduce operators to it,” he said.
In his own presentation, the Managing Director of Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), Mr Tunde Bakare, said the company was ready to collaborate with the Ministry of Transportation.
He said the company was ready to introduce Compressed Natural Gas as a viable substitute to fuel for road transport operations in Nigeria.
Bakare, who was represented by Mr Michael Arinze, said transport operators have depended too much on fuel, hence there was the need to shift to natural gas vehicles to save cost.
“Natural gas vehicles are vehicles that use natural gas as an alternative to fossil fuel. It has become obvious that the viable alternative is natural gas and natural gas is what Nigeria has in abundant.”
He noted as at 2015, there were 22.7 million natural gas vehicles worldwide, with Iran, China, Pakistan, Argentina and India as the top country using natural gas.
He said in 1995, Nigeria delegates went to New- Zealand to source for new cylinders to convert vehicles in Nigeria.
According to him, Pakistan was there to purchase used cylinders, while Nigeria purchased new cylinders.
“Today, Pakistan is number three in the whole world and Nigeria is not among the first fifty,” he said.
Bakare said CNG vehicles deliver the lowest emission, noting that if investors spend N13.8 million on PMS if their vehicles run on CNG, the cost would be reduced to N3.6million.
