ROTIMI ASHER
Oil and gas data reveals that Nigeria has natural gas reserves of 209 .26 trillion cubic feet as at January 2004, a 0.5% increase from the previous year. This is made up of 102.59 TCF of associated gas and 106.67 TCF of non-associated gas.
As the ninth largest producer in the world, the country’s proven gas reserves are equivalent to 306.3 times its annual consumption.
In essence, contrary to the age-long illusion of being an oil-rich nation, thereby tolerating unchecked gas flaring and waste, Nigeria is, in reality, a gas-rich country.
It is therefore, heartwarming that the country is currently taking advantage of its abundant gas resources towards boosting the economy and providing succor to the citizens, who have been hard hit by the transitive hardships of the fuel subsidy removal.
The Presidential CNG Initiative (Pi-CNG), a component of the palliative intervention of the government, was designed to lower transportation cost for the populace by powering our mass transit and industries with cheaper, cleaner, safer and more reliable natural gas.
So far, it is on record that, through the P-CNG Initiative, that the number of conversion centers has increased to over 140 across the country and over 100,000 vehicles converted to CNG or bi-fuel configuration, resulting in more than 60 per cent savings in fuel costs.
Speaking recently on the achievement of the Initiative recently, the PCNG Project Director/CEO, Michael Oluwagbemi revealed that “$200 million has been invested in developing CNG infrastructure, creating thousands of jobs as additional conversion centers are established to meet rising demand while investors are ramping up development and deployment of CNG infrastructure.”
He frowned vat misinformation from some media outlets, which are meant to demarket the CNG Initiative.
“The claims are misleading,” he pointed out, adding, “The reports did not give a rational and fair assessment of the initiative.
“Given the level of progress made in adopting and deploying CNG infrastructure, we are concerned over certain instances of misinformation against this epochal initiative by section of the media.”
Oluwagbemi debunked the claims that CNG conversions are financially burdensome for commercial drivers, saying, conversions for commercial vehicles are free under the Conversion Incentive Program.
On safety concerns expressed, following a widely publicized cylinder explosion in Benin, he clarified: “the incident was as a result of substandard and uncertified CNG failing during refilling. CNG is eight times less explosive than diesel and eighteen times less explosive than petrol and is both cleaner and more sustainable for Nigeria’s energy security.
No doubt, CNG is a better alternative energy to fossil fuels and Nigerians will lose in the long run if they fail to support this initiative of the government. More so, the entire world is adoption eco-friendly energy as the earth is battling the menace of climate change. Report has shown that there is a significant reduction in the emission of CO2 by 70% when CNG is used as transportation fuel compared to PMS or fuel.
Also, a technical overview of compressed natural gas as a transportation fuel revealed that CNG automobiles make less noise than gasoline and diesel automobiles. There will be drastic reduction in air pollution over time as the country adopts the use CNG automobiles with low carbon emission thereby increasing energy security.
Speaking on CNG as a viable option for the average citizen, the Chief Executive Officer, AHA Strategies, Ademola Adigun said: “a full tank from Lagos to Ibadan in a regular car costs about N50,000. Whereas using CNG would only cost about N1, 900, which is less than 3 per cent of the cost of transportation.
He stated: “Contrary to some beliefs, CNG engines do not underperform compared to petrol engines. The only distinction is that CNG is more environmentally friendly than LPG, petrol or diesel.”
On its part, the Federal Government has demonstrated utmost good faith through its directive mandates that all government purchased vehicles must be CNG related. And, if what Olugbemi said is anything to go by, Tinubu administration is also collaborating with banks through the credit Corp Credit Access for light and mobility programme, making CNG conversions accessible to more Nigerians.
This will allow civil servants and private sector employees to obtain loans for CNG conversions, further expanding access to the initiative benefits. Apart from clean energy contribution and other benefits, expert says Nigeria is opting for this gas initiative, because it has an abundance of it, making it a practical choice.
Unfortunately, in response to the recent negative social media campaign against CNG, which were aided by certain respected news media, majority of motorists, who responded to the question of whether or not they would convert their vehicles to gas responded in the negative.
A social media user, one Clement Fowobi wrote:
“With all these explosions, their deceits are now coming out. Maybe they are on a mission to depopulate Nigerians by encouraging public to carry ‘explosives’ in our vehicles. Let government officials convert their official vehicles first…”
The foregoing seat-of-the-pants-based comment was obviously motivated by what Oluwagbemi affirmed as media misinformation, a trend capable of slowing down or killing the clean automotive energy initiative, which the likes of Iran and India have, over the years, enjoyed without issues.
Rotimi Asher is the Editor of businessmonitor.ng
