Fueling Vehicles In Nigeria Is About To Take Another Dimension With This New Scheme Proposed By The Government
The Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday December 1, inaugurated an autogas scheme in Abuja. It inaugurated an Autogas and Natural Gas Vehicles Committee with the aim of driving up the adoption of gas as an alternative fuel for vehicles in Nigeria.
According to a report by Punch Nigeria, the adoption of gas as an alternative fuel will lead to the rise of two new categories of vehicles: Autogas vehicles and natural gas vehicles. The Autogas vehicles would be powered by Liquified Petroleum Gas, while those grouped as natural gas vehicles would use Compressed Natural Gas as alternative fuel.
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The chairman of the committee, Mohammed Ibrahim, said increased utilisation of CNG/LNG would provide a conducive environment for investors adding that CNG/LNG could be employed to power passenger cars and city buses.
Nigeria is said to be one of the top ten nations in the world with huge natural gas reserves. Diverting the gas to more economical use is one of the solutions to the gas flaring problem and the practical steps towards use of the gas as fuel for vehicles will significantly increase the local demand for gas and thus reduce wastage.
At the event, it was also disclosed that motorists who run their vehicles on autogas will spend less in refilling their tanks than those using Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol.
Though a figure was not given to show how cheap the product will be, however the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, told newsmen that the autogas in question include Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas.
Sylva who revealed that his ministry was working out the price for autogas, also inaugurated the autogas station of NNPC in Lugbe, Abuja, under the National Gas Expansion Programme and National Auto-gas Roll-out Initiative.
Inaugurating five buses that run on autogas and handing them over to the Nigeria Labour Congress with a promise of delivering about 100 more buses to the union, Sylva said;
“But I can assure you that it is cheaper than PMS.”