If the Natural Gas project, an initiative that was first introduced by Nigerian Gas Company, NGC, in 1989 is sustained, the federal government would be saving about $1.5 billion annually, managing director of NIPCO Plc, Sanjay Teotia has said.
The Natural Gas project reportedly achieved a modest success with the only downside being the unavailability of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations.
According to the managing director of NIPCO Plc, Sanjay Teotia, between 2012 and 2016 the federal government, saved over $10 million in foreign exchange, adding that the NGVs provides lot of prospects and opportunities for countries that have realized the need, created awareness and made appropriate regulations for using natural gas as a vehicular fuel.
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The federal government had in 2007 granted license to NIPCO Plc to implement the pilot project in Benin City, Edo State, in partnership with NGC, which led to the formation of a Joint Venture, JV company, known as “Green Gas Ltd”.
The JV successfully implemented the pilot with nine operational CNG stations catering to over 4000 NGVs.
Teotia said the project presents significant potential for gas utilization in Nigeria as the economic situation is mainly driven by fuel pricing and scarcity of petroleum products, while fuel pricing issue is driven by the “excessive subsidy” required by government to maintain availability of refined products
