In a bid to increase domestic consumption of autogas (compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG)), the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has given an executive order effective January 2021 for official vehicles used by its parastatals to run on autogas. The FGN is developing a policy that will aid the initial importation of dual fuel engines to advance domestic manufacturing by ramping up autogas demand and encouraging its adoption by local producers and Nigerians in general. Under the policy, the FGN parastatals will present their designated vehicles for conversion to dual fuel engines. The dual fuel engines will operate on a combination of compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and diesel (or alternatively completely on diesel).

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva (the “Minister”) has directed that all his vehicles and the official vehicles of the chief executives of departments and agencies under his ministry should be converted to run on autogas. The Minister said the conversion of the vehicles to run on autogas was to demonstrate to Nigerians that the government was serious with its declaration of 2020 as “The Year of Gas.” The Minister disclosed this in his address at the Ministerial Mandate Performance Scorecard Review session.

At the event, the Minister’s Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation, Justice Derefaka (representing Chairman, The National Gas Expansion Programme - Mohammed Ibrahim), explained that the use of gas in automobiles would reduce energy poverty in Nigeria and reduce pollution and the damaging environmental effect of carbon emissions from petrol.

Already, global awareness of the effects of climate change and the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has made it imperative for Nigeria, a major gas flaring country, to update its position on traditional non-renewable fuels and reduce its carbon footprint. The use of autogas would represent an improvement in the FGN’s climate change efforts with the additional benefit of affordable gas as fuel for manufacturers and individual Nigerians in both urban and rural areas.

We will continue to monitor the drive to promote the use of gas and bring you updates as further information becomes available.