Nigeria’s state-owned energy company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) has taken further steps to provide Nigerians with a gas station that will service over 3,700 cars daily with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to power their non-PMS cars and trucks.
The Executive Director Centre for Sustainable Mobility/Access Development (MenSMAD), Kayode Opeifa said the gas infrastructure which is a 5.2 million standard cubic feet plant around the gas hub in Ilasamaja, Lagos State will be commissioned on Thursday, May 30, 2024.
Opeifa said these while commenting on the achievements of President Tinubu in the oil and gas sector.
He said, “As part of the ramping up of the gas infrastructure to improve the gas supply for especially the automobile industry, the NNPC tomorrow (May 30, 2024) in partnership with Transit Gas Nigeria Limited”s (TGNL), a private sector organization will be commissioning the 5.2 million standard cubic feet plant around the gas hub in Ilasamaja.
“That facility would have two components- that is a compression plant, you know CNG is gas natural gas that is compressed to increase the value within a tube-like stuff, and then at the same time that plant is going to have a dispensing outlet. So, if I have the CNG vehicle or if I have converted my vehicle to CNG I can go there to be filled.
“The plant can also compress for people to buy the compressed gas in a bottle like or tube and then move to their site for industrial production and that plant can service if you utilize in the day about 3,700 vehicles that are cars and if it is trucks about 600 trucks and the difference in that plant or the usual one, we are used to is that it is the-state-of-the-art and this plant can dispense multiple cars.
“You have different sets for cars different sets for trucks different sets for buses, so within a short period of time, you can serve a lot of vehicles.”
When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over office on May 29, 2023, he announced that ‘fuel subsidy is gone’, a decision that led to a rise in fuel prices to N617 per litre few weeks after the announcement.
Tinubu set up a Presidential CNG Initiative (PI-CNG), a secretariat to drive the implementation of CNG across Nigeria as a cleaner alternative fuel to PMS.
Since the announcement of subsidy removal, the NNPCL has doubled its efforts to drive energy security through the utilization of Nigeria’s abundant gas resources.
The company has delivered numerous gas projects that would drive CNG gas penetration across the country.
Last year, the NNPCL entered a partnership with NIPCO to set up 35 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Lagos and other parts of the country.
During the partnership, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari said the partnership is “Part of the NNPCL commitment to reducing carbon footprint and providing cheaper alternative fuel to motorists.”
On May 19, 2024, the NNPCL and partners delivered three critical gas infrastructures commissioned by the President.
The projects were, the AHL Gas Processing Plant 2 (GPP – 2) – 200mmscf/d which is an expansion to the Kwale Gas Processing Plant (GPP – 1); the AHL Gas Plant, which is being developed by AHL Limited, an incorporated Joint Venture owned by NNPC Limited and SEEPCO and the ANOH-OB3 CTMS Gas Pipeline Project.
Opeifa said, “When he (Bola Tinubu) mentioned that we will be moving towards energy sustainability that we will be using CNG gases to power our automobile and also for the industries, within that short period, we have seen a lot of Nigerians rushing into the value chain involved in the gas industry.
“We have also seen that they have also delivered a lot of gas infrastructure and if you look back 12 months ago compared to where we are today, we have improved in the area of gas and energy sufficiency.
“If you go to PMS, you can see the efforts being made. On the natural gas side, the presidential CNG Committee has been doing its own and also NNPCL is pushing along. We have now started producing CNG vehicles and we have ramped up capacity to manufacture CNG vehicles.”
Opeifa said the NNPCL has made huge progress in delivering gas infrastructure that would enable a sufficient supply of CNG across Nigeria.
He said, “What is important is the infrastructure to make sure gas is available and that is the essence of the gas pipelines that the NNPCL is building. The next thing is for the compression plants.
“When it comes to the pipeline, it gets to the point that it has to be compressed and that was why they built the ANOH-OB3 CTMS Gas Pipeline that is from Imo to Delta. The gas is in Delta and the processing plant is in Imo.
“That is why they also built the AHL Gas Plant in Kwale, Delta. There is also the AKK Pipeline that will transport the gas to the Northern part of Nigeria because the gas pipelines are now more in the Southern and North-Central parts of Nigeria. So, the effort that the NNPCL is concentrating on is getting the gas pipeline across the country so that they can pipe the natural gas to these points and there will be compression centers that will compress the gas to form the CNG. When it becomes the CNG, that is when it is useful to your cars.”