President Bola Tinubu launched the Conversion Incentive Program (CIP) for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, on August 22.
The president stated that the initiative aimed to mitigate the impact of the removal of fuel subsidies and advance a safer, cleaner, and more dependable country.
The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (P-CNGi) is a testament to Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, according to the president, who was speaking at the event in the capacity of the initiative’s CEO and program director, Michael Oluwagbemi.
He exhorted Nigerians to seize the chances in the CNG industry, claiming that by utilizing CNG, Nigeria is driving a revolution.
The president advised Nigerians not to question the initiative and to instead let the country make the most of its resources.
He bemoaned that the country’s reliance on imported and subsidized petroleum products had left the country’s economy, growth, and destiny in the hands of other countries.
He said: “Nigeria as a nation has continued to pay for expensive PMS and diseases that are not only dexterous to our health but also our finances, the better way is for us to use what we have that is cleaner, cheaper, safer, and more reliable.
“This natural gas is everywhere across the nation, 30 out of 36 states in Nigeria have natural gas reserves, we have enough gas reserves to last us for more than 100 years as one of the largest gas reserve nations in the world and ranked as number one in Africa.
“And to translate these gas either for transportation, fuelling generators, or our industries, it is far simpler than building a refinery.
“Dangote refinery has about 650,000 barrels processing capacity per day which translates to about 100 million litres of petrol per day, this is equivalent to about 36 million vehicles if you are to power 36 million CNG vehicles, you won’t need the footprint of Dangote refinery, so, to get PMS is not only expensive but time and space consuming endeavours, and that is what makes PMS expensive.
“With all these natural blessings, why would Nigerians live beside the ocean and be washing their hands with a slit? Why would we have these bountiful gas resources which are easier to produce, cheaper on our pocket cleaner for our environment, and safer and not make good use of it?
“If you get to petrol tanker accident, nine out of ten leads to an explosion, but in the case of CNG, one out of ten leads to an explosion, CNG is eight times less explosive than diesel, 18 times less explosive than petrol.”
