As Nigerians wait with bated breath the resumption next week of the suspended dialogue between the Federal Government and organised labour over the petrol subsidy removal crisis crisis, focus will again shift to compressed natural gas (CNG) as a cheaper alternative for consumers.
Before suspending its nationwide strike planned for last week to protest the decision by the President, Bola Tinubu, to announce the removal of subsidy without first unveiling palliatives, the Nigeria Labour (NLC) had asked the government to give serious consideration to the use of CNG as alternative fuel to divert attention from petrol whose retail price has since risen beyond the reach of the average Nigerians.
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, said with the current high price of petrol in the country, not many workers can afford to drive their cars if nothing is done urgently to find an alternative to petrol.
Harping on CNG as a viable alternative fuel, Ajaero urged the government to strive to harness and promote autogas, rather than focus on petrol subsidy.
He said creating awareness on the benefits of autogas as an alternative to petrol, and the provision of the relevant conversion infrastructure at affordable cost would go a long way to ameliorate and cushion the pains of subsidy removal on petrol.
“Government must first of all create an enabling environment for the green economy, vis-a-vis gas as an alternative, rather than depending on fossil fuels,” Ajaero said.
Experts say the current petrol subsidy removal crisis could be a blessing in disguise for Nigerians.
Days after new President, Bola Tinubu, made a pronouncement on the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, the country is still reeling from the immediate impact.
Soon after the pronouncement, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) unveiled a 195 percent hike in the price of petrol in all its filling stations throughout the country.
From an average of N195 per litre, the NNPC raised the price of petrol to between N488 and N537 per litre depending on location. The other fuel marketers in the country also raised their retail pump prices to between N540 and N600 per litre.
Since the introduction of the new price regime, the long queues that resurfaced at filling stations across the country shortly after the pronouncement by Tinubu has disappeared. What is noticeable, however, is that the number of vehicles at filling stations have significantly reduced, because the new petrol price has suddenly become unaffordable to a lot of consumers.
Nigeria is a country richly blessed with abundant natural resources that could be harnessed for the benefit of the people. The country is reputed to be a gas province producing a little oil.
What this means is that although the country is the world’s eighth largest producer of crude oil, the gas reserves in the country far outstrips that of crude oil.
Against the background of the current global energy transition, which is fast shifting the world’s attention away from fossil fuel to natural gas as a transition fuel, lots of attention has shifted to gas development in recent times under the gas commercialisation programme aimed at helping the Federal Government realise its 2025 gas flares-out target.
As part of the programme, the government, in January 2020, declared 2020 as ‘Year of Gas’, with opportunities identified for the compressed natural gas (CNG) development, mini-liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and gas-based industries in the country.
In March 2021, the period between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2030 was also declared “The Decade of Gas Development for Nigeria”, primarily to set the road map towards a gas-powered economy by 2030.
To boost the government gas commercialization agenda, the CNG and LPG penetration programme was initiated by the government to encourage Nigerians to use the two natural resources as alternative fuels to petrol in the country.
Apart from the various ongoing gas projects to harness and commercialise the country’s gas resources, the government has been pursuing a deliberate policy to domesticate gas utilisation in the country.
The current subsidy removal crisis, which has made petrol almost unaffordable for some Nigerians has again necessitated the adoption of autogas as alternative fuel for petrol. This is not a new issue, as the government has always searched for alternative fuels for petrol in the country.
From all the alternatives so far identified, LPG, also known as cooking gas, or autogas, and CNG, are the two most viable and reliable alternatives to petrol.
Apart from their advantage of being priced significantly lower than petrol and automotive gas oil (AGO), or diesel, both have the added benefit of being environmentally-friendly with lower carbon emissions for car owners and motorists in the country.
After he initial cost of conversion of the petrol vehicles to autogas or autoCNG, they cost as low as an average of between N80 and N100 per litre to refill, which is significantly cheaper than petrol.
Determined to promote autogas and CNG as cheaper and cleaner alternative fuels to petrol in the country, the federal government rolled out several programmes to promote gas development, particularly the development of infrastructures that would enable motorists and other categories of consumers to utilise them as alternative fuels for their vehicles and engines. Some of these facilities made conversion and installation of autogas and CNG in vehicles affordable to Nigerians.
As part of the commitment to realise this objective, the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration roll-out a gas development under the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) to usher in a new era of gas utilisation as a better fuel for Nigerians, by promoting autogas and CNG as alternative fuels to petrol in the country.
Under the plan, Autogas Dispensing facilities and conversion inspection stations were established by the LPG Unit of the then NNPC at Jahi and Autolady Garage in Abuja.
The two were among similar facilities established by the government in 18 locations across the 36 states of the federation as gas service stations for the three auto-gas streams – CNG, LNG, and LPG for industrial, transportation and domestic uses.
The stations were to drive the LPG business, apart from its CNG Business strategy under the National Gas Expansion Programme developed to encourage Nigerians to convert their cars to autogas as a cheaper and more reliable fuel to petrol for their vehicles.
The objective of the programme was to help deepen domestic usage of natural gas as cheaper and cleaner alternative auto-fuel to petrol. Other operators have also joined to establish autogas dispensers in their filling stations.
For instance, NIPCO Gas Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of NIPCO Plc, based in Lagos, currently operates 12 functional autogas and CNG conversion stations Edo, Kogi, Delta, Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
These stations were established to help convert petrol vehicles to AautoCNG considered a cleaner, safer, and affordable alternative to vehicles.
NIPCO Gas, which operates in partnership with NNPC Gas Marketing Limited (NGML), is reputed to be the pioneer AutoCNG distribution in Nigeria.
If the partnership between NNPC Gas Marketing Company Ltd and NIPCO Gas is extended to other private independent operators in the sector in a more symbiotic manner, Nigeria could experience more positive growth in the nation’s quest to harness and promote its gas potentials for autogas CNG.
The Managing Director, NIPCO Gas Limited, Nagendra Verma, said recently that the company, which has so far converted and fuelled over 7, 000 vehicles with AutoCNG, plans to establish more CNG stations in Oyo, Lagos, and Akwa Ibom states.
“With the decision by the Federal Government on fuel subsidy removal in the country, autogas and CNG will become the preferred “fuel of choice” due to its many benefits in terms of safety, environmental-friendliness, and availability in abundance at affordable cost,” Verma said.
Already, autogas appears to be gaining popularity with the announcement by the Chairperson of the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Winifred Akpani, of the donation of 100 CNG-powered mass transit buses to the Federal Government to ease the transportation difficulties caused by the hike in price of petrol as a result of the removal of subsidy on petrol.
Also, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has endorsed the adoption of autogas as an alternative energy source to petrol to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.
