The Federal Government says it hopes to save $12 million daily by reducing the current 50 million litres of petrol consumed in the country every 24 hours.
This, it explained, would be achieved through the conversion of a sizeable number of vehicles in the country to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) users.
The government added that at the moment, it hopes to ensure that one million vehicles became CNG-enabled.
“Total reduction in PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) import will be $12 million a day or 4.4 billion a year, said the Coordinator, Regulations, Compliance and Facilitation, Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas(PCNGi), Zayyan Tambari, an engineer.
Tambari also told participants of a Co-Creation Session on Nigeria Gas Vehicle Monitoring System (NGVMS) in Abuja yesterday that the government needed $890 million investment to establish an alternative fuel infrastructure.
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, assured the participants that government was committed to ensuring the full utilisation of the nation’s gas resources.
Ekpo, who was represented by Abel Nsa, added that specific materials and tools would be needed across the value chain to ensure a safe usage of CNG as fuel for vehicles.
The minister said: “We are at the point where we need to begin to talk about the safety issues in the use of CNG. We have got to educate ourselves and we have got to use specific tools and materials hitherto that we have not been using.
“If you will recall what happened with the emergence of the cell phone during President Obasanjo regime, from an economic perspective, a lot is going to happen. It is going to give us a lot of tools on how to utilise CNG.”
