The Federal Government of Nigeria declared its intention to convert 10 million Premium Motor Spirit vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas, CNG in the next 36 months.

This was made public via a statement on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, by the spokesperson for the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Louis Ibah.
Ibah said, “The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, stated this while on a panel tagged “Energy Talk” at the ongoing ADIPEC 2023 conference and exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates”.
According to the Minister, the initiative was in partnership with the private sector.

“Our ministry is working with the organised private sector to roll out over two million CNG conversion kits for free within the next nine months to push the utilisation of CNG as the main fuel for vehicles nationwide. This initiative is aimed at converting 10 million vehicles from PMS to CNG in the next 36 months,” he said.

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Ekpo elaborated on some of the benefits of the initiative to include, creation of over 100,000 jobs for Nigerians, increasing government savings from reduced subsidy payout for the importation of PMS, reducing carbon emission following the utilization of clean gas to drive internal combustion engines, etc.

He passionately commented on the Federal Government’s effort to create an enabling operational and fiscal environment for great investments in the upstream, midstream, and downstream gas sectors.

He further said, “The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is poised to promote business around Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources”.

“This is evident in the actions of Mr. President when he split the Ministry of Petroleum Resources into Oil & Gas respectively. This singular action is a testament to President Tinubu’s resolve to promote gas commercialization in Nigeria for export and domestic utilisation,” Ekpo said.

The Minister, headed the Nigerian delegation to the event, with a focus on initiatives to promote and support gas-based industrialisation and decarbonisation agenda with the collaboration and support of the organized private sector.

The initiatives include; Decade of Gas (Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream); getting cooking gas to every home and CNG for vehicles; gas flare commercialisation programme and gas to petrochemicals.

The Minister also informed the audience on planned policy changes that will affect gas pricing regime, non-associated gas acreage development, and review of the terms of the production sharing contracts.

“These are all aimed at attracting investments of more than $20 billion into the country for NAG offshore and deep-water acreage development,” he said.

He added that the Ministry is working closely with all respective parastatals to ensure these reforms are across to the upper legislative chamber for approval and subsequently the for President’s endorsement.