Auto-gas: Nigeria Moves to Tap Environmental and Cost Benefits

The push for a switch from vehicles run on petrol and diesel to autogas and what consumers may wish to know

The Federal Government earlier declared 2020 as the year of gas and has continued to introduce programmes to sway citizens to use gas as an alternative fuel.

The Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its agencies such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and the Department of Petroleum Resources, among others, have intensified campaigns on why consumers should now use gas.

Senior government officials describe autogas as cheap, available, affordable and accessible, adding that it was less expensive than petrol or diesel in many countries.

The Technical Assistant to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources on Gas Business and Policy, Justice Derefaka, said autogas used as an engine fuel was the most commonly used and accepted alternative fuel in the world today.

It was gathered that global consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas as engine fuel, primarily autogas, had been rising in recent years, reaching 26.7 million tonnes in 2016.

This represents an increase of 5.5 million tonnes or 25 per cent over the 2009 level.

“So, as you can see, Nigeria needs to catch up with the rest of the world and that is what the Federal Government is doing with the National Gas Expansion Programme autogas scheme,” Derefaka said.

Derefaka, who doubles as the Programme Manager, Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, and Programme Manager, Autogas, National Gas Expansion Programme, said autogas vehicles could operate in dual-fuel mode with switches for alternating between fuels.

SOURCE: punch