The Federal Government has concluded plans to ensure marketers open Compressed Natural Gas Pumps in filling stations across the country.
As such, the government said intending retail licensees would be now required to establish a CNG point in their filling stations before getting final government approval.
The government asked oil marketers to commence the process of establishing Compressed Natural Gas points at their filling stations to increase consumer accessibility.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, disclosed this during a meeting with key oil marketing companies on Tuesday in Abuja.
The discussion was to address the issues of incessant scarcity of petroleum products in the country and propose alternative solutions.
Ahmed also disclosed that a major conversation they had was in the area of the Compressed Natural Gas initiative of the Federal Government.
He implored the major marketers to explore the availability of CNG in their gas stations as President Bola Tinubu has directed that government vehicles to be purchased henceforth must be CNG-powered.
He said new applications for retail licences would no longer be approved without CNG points.
Ahmed, who described the push by the Federal Government to encourage the use of CNG as an alternative to petrol as a revolution, said the government was determined to reduce the burden of petrol on the economy.
He added, “We also discussed the CNG revolution and our collective effort to ensure that we reduce the burden on the economy by having an alternative by having an alternative to PMS which is very costly especially due to exchange rate fluctuations and instability. we are looking at gas because we have it in abundance, we have over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas. All we need is to harness the industry to produce, invest and be good for the consumer and CNG is the way to go.
“We discussed our plans and collective responsibility to add CNG in our petrol stations very soon just like we have PMS, diesel and kerosene, we also want to have CNG so that it would provide easy access to the consumers but of course, we have to address the supply side and we are working with the producing companies, our sister agency, NUPRC and NNPC Limited as well as Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria to ensure that the product is also available at a competitive cost to the consumers.
“Secondly, we want to reduce the burden of the importation and consumption of PMS. we explored the possibility of converting the energy requirement of retail outlets and depot by the stakeholders here going into solar but of course there is a high entry cost and we have discussed that and it is going to be in phases. By doing so, we will reduce the demand for diesel in terms of powering our generators by utilising solar options. Once we are done with consultations, we will require that CNG add-ons be put in petrol stations and for new applications, one of the requirements will be that you must have CNG add-on in the petrol station”, he said.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, the chief executive stated that authority will not dictate the price band of the products but assured that stopgaps like the Dangote Refinery would bring succour to the local industry.
He said the Federal Government would not set the price of petroleum products from the Dangote refinery upon its full operation.
Text except headline courtesy of Punch