10 million PMS vehicles will be converted to CNG by the FG

In the upcoming 36 months, the Federal Government plans to convert 10 million Premium Motor Spirit automobiles to Compressed Natural Gas.

The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, made this statement on a panel titled “Energy Talk” at the ongoing ADIPEC 2023 conference and exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, according to a statement released by the Minister’s spokesperson, Louis Ibah, on Wednesday.

The project, according to the Minister, was a collaboration with the commercial sector.

To promote the use of CNG as the primary fuel for automobiles nationally, “our ministry is collaborating with the organised private sector to provide approximately two million CNG conversion kits for free within the next nine months. In the next 36 months, this plan aims to convert 10 million vehicles from PMS to CNG, according to him.

According to Ekpo, the initiative’s main advantages include giving Nigerians over 100,000 new jobs, boosting government savings through lower subsidy payments for the importation of PMS, and lowering carbon emissions as a result of using clean petrol to power internal combustion engines.

In order to boost investments in the upstream, midstream, and downstream gas sectors, he emphasised the Federal Government’s commitment to establishing favourable operational and fiscal conditions.

He asserts that the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is prepared to encourage commerce centred around Nigeria’s enormous natural gas resources.

“This is clear from Mr. President’s measures, which included dividing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources into Oil & Gas, respectively. President Tinubu’s determination to promote gas commercialization in Nigeria for export and local use is demonstrated by this one-of-a-kind measure, according to Ekpo.

The minister, who is in charge of leading the Nigerian delegation at the meeting, outlined a number of efforts the government is taking to advance its gas-based industrialization and decarbonization strategy with the help of corporations and the organised private sector.

The top three of these programmes are Decade of Gas (Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream), bringing CNG for cars and cooking gas into every home, the commercialization of gas flares, and gas to petrochemicals.

The minister briefed the audience on particular policy modifications aimed at the gas pricing regime, the development of non-associated gas acreage, and a review of the conditions of the production sharing contracts.

All of these, he claimed, are intended to draw more than $20 billion in investments into the nation for NAG offshore and deep sea acreage development.

He continued by saying that the ministry is closely collaborating with each parastatal to get these reforms approved by the upper legislative house and then approved by the President.