August 5, 2020. The federal government is pushing fast for Nigerians to adopt natural gas as an alternative to petrol and diesel for transportation vehicles. In this regard, it stated that it has set up a committee to drive the adoption of autogas and natural gas vehicles (NGV) in the country.
Justice Derefaka, who is the Technical Adviser (TA) on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, disclosed this in a statement. Derefaka, is also the Program Coordinator for the Nigerian Flare Gas Commercialization Programme (NFGCP).
He explained that a meeting was recently held in Abuja between the Committee of the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) and some stakeholders in the oil and gas industry, in which the decision to press forward on the mainstreaming of gas for transport in Nigeria was reached. According to him, the NGEP was inaugurated by Sylva in January 2020, as the mechanism to boost domestic utilization of natural gas within the short and medium term. “As part of the programme, an autogas and NGVs sub-committee was constituted with the sole aim to drive the adoption of these alternative fuels in Nigeria,” he added.
He noted that as part of the federal government’s strategy to re-position the country’s gas sub-sector, the Ministry commenced the implementation of critically conceived initiatives in the sector. They included rapid growth of the LPG/CNG/LNG market, development of support-infrastructure for the gas sector, investment and domestic growth of the sector, as well as the promotion of natural gas usage in Nigeria as an alternative fuel choice.
“It is expected that this will stimulate economic growth, further improve our energy mix, drive investments and provide jobs in Nigeria,” Derefaka stated. He further said that the NGEP would collaborate with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to co-locate autogas and NGV outlets at its retail service stations across the country.
