Nagendra Verma, the Managing Director of Nipco Gas Limited has said that fuel costs N620 per litre in Abuja, while Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for cars costs N213 per scm (standard cubic meter).
He said this during a recent interview on the “Energy and You” series packaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), airing weekly via the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Network.
He also said that while diesel sells for N850 per litre, CNG for vehicles that use diesel in Abuja is around N219 per scm.
He said: “If we compare the price with diesel or PMS, the price of CNG for the different vehicles is approximately 35% of the current PMS or diesel prices.”
Verma said Nipco Gas has a 14-year experience of operating auto-compressed natural gas (CNG) in Nigeria, via 14 CNG stations and has converted around 7,000 vehicles to CNG in the country.
According to him: “This CNG project will be done at a very fast pace, and it will give relief to Nigerian citizens. As we all know NNPCL is the biggest oil and gas service provider in this country, and NNPCL is in every nook and cranny of Nigeria.
“On the other hand, NNPCL has a wide pipeline gas infrastructure which becomes the backbone for the auto CNG stations. The natural gas pipelines will support the installation of CNG stations from where the gas will be taken.
“Also, NNPC Retail has a wide infrastructure network of retailing liquid fuels. With the support of the NNPCL, the gas pipeline infrastructure, and the downstream retail network, the autogas CNG stations will come at a much faster pace to meet the timelines and be more economical, having such infrastructure already in place.”
He said that Nipco has been distributing CNG since 2009, and to Nipco, it is a service to society, not a profit-making business.
According to him, there are other businesses like the supply of gas to industries, that compensate for the losses encountered in the CNG business.
While addressing gas availability, Verma said that there is no shortage of gas in Nigeria, however, he did admit that there are constraints in the transportation infrastructure for gas.
He stated further that pipelines are available in the South-south and Southwest regions of the country and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline is also progressing and very soon, will become active.
How the CNG value chain works
Verma said the CNG value chain is mainly about taking gas from pipelines and compressing it for automobile use and the compression is required to store more gas in a specific size of a cylinder.
He said there is a need to install mother stations at the pipeline locations.
According to him, there are presently four existing mother stations which will be connected to more mother stations and then to daughter stations which will have jumbo cascades.
Verma also added: “Almost 20 or 21 states and Abuja will be having CNG by way of compressed natural gas, while other states will be having CNG by way of liquefied natural gas (LNG) which other companies like us are also working on and the NNPCL is on top of it.
“When it comes to safety,” Verma said that CNG is just like other hydrocarbon products and should be handled carefully. If there is any leakage, CNG goes up in the air and disperses and it also has a low flammability range which gives an added safety advantage.”
SOURCE: denisblogs.com