FG Will Roll Out National Gas Expansion Program November 30-Sylva

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has said that the National Gas Expansion Programme would be rolled out on November 30.

Sylva, in an interview with Premium Times, said that the initiative ties into everything the government is planning to ensure the development of the midstream sector of the petroleum industry.

He said, “This will help the government focus on the development of the abundant gas resources in the country.

“The National Gas Expansion Programme is geared towards expanding the utilisation of gas resources to benefit the economy.”

According to the Minister, Nigeria, despite being one of the destinations in the world with the largest reserves of natural gas has the lowest gas penetration in Africa.

“Domestic gas is not used extensively in Nigeria. It is used mostly in the cities and urban areas, not at the grassroots.

“That has caused serious environmental problems and affected the government afforestation programme, as the bulk of the firewood used in cooking in the rural areas is sourced from the forests.

“From firewood as a source of fuel, we move to household kerosene, which many people consider carcinogenic. So, there is need for the government to move the people to a cleaner fuel, which is natural gas,” he said.

Speaking further, the Minister stated that efforts are ongoing to promote the use of gas as an alternative for automobile fuel, which has now been deregulated.

He said,”We are now going to encourage Nigerians to convert their cars to use gas as a cheaper and more reliable fuel alternative.

“We plan to demonstrate how Nigerians will benefit from the National Gas Expansion programme. We expect everybody will convert their petrol cars to use gas.

“We expect that filling stations would also upgrade their infrastructure to ensure that people can drive into their filling stations and fill up the fuel tanks either with Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Compressed Natural Gas or Liquefied Natural Gas.

“Companies like Dangote Group have already converted all their trucks to CNG, and they have been running very effectively. From what I have been told, the use of gas as fuel for their trucks has reduced the company’s operational cost by about 50 per cent, in terms of fueling cost.

“The advantages of gas is that its usage cannot be adulterated, or the gas cannot be siphoned or stolen, apart from being easier on the vehicle engine.

“We believe that there are several other benefits which will help to cushion the effects of PMS pricing on the consumers because it will be a cheaper form of fuel than PMS.”