By Sulaimon Salau
Effective utilisation of the abundant gas resources in the country will be further boosted if more motorists embrace the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as vehicular fuel, the Director, Green Grass Limited (GGL), Venkataraman Venkatapathy has said.
CNG, which is fast becoming the preferred auto fuel in developed and developing countries in view of its attendant benefits, is currently being packaged in Nigeria by Green Grass Limited (GGL), a joint venture company of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Nipco Plc.
GGL has already built six CNG stations in Benin, Edo State and two kits fitment workshop, while six other stations are under constructions in other states of the federation.
Venkatapathy said that the interest and enthusiasm shown by vehicle owners at this year expo was a pointer to the fact that CNG campaign was eliciting positive response. Already, in anticipation of more motorists converting their vehicles to use CNG, GGL has embarked on building more outlets to meet the expected high demand and that soonest some of the stations will begin operation.
He noted that with over 14 million vehicles running on CNG worldwide and the projection of 20 million by the year 2020, Nigeria could also use her existing natural gas resources in the CNG programme. According to him, the CNG schemes offered dual fuel option to users by providing flexibility of running a vehicle either on CNG or on petrol simply by flicking a switch installed on the dashboard.
He explained that at the workshops, experienced fitment personal works diligently to ensure a seamless conversion of liquid fuels vehicles to CNG powered ones. The GGL director informed that the company, which afforded major opportunities to taxis currently plying the chary of Benin to convert their cars free of cost, was poised to create an enduring opportunity for motorists to benefit from the benefits of running their vehicles on CNG.
The GGL director pointed out that the company, which had participated in several exhibitions to promote the use of CNG would continue to harness all avenues to ensure that Nigeria joined the countries using CNG as auto fuel. He said that GGL exhibited pick up Hilux vehicle at the event as part of our genuine desire at creating more awareness for the CNG programme.
“Our CNG team has also successfully converted Edo State government busses to run on CNG and diesel on a hybrid saving 50 per cent of the fuel cost for the state run company,” the GGL director affirmed.
According to him, the company aside from constructing stations, he had also completed laying of over 40 kilometres of gas pipeline to supply piped natural gas (PNG) to commercial and industrial companies along the Benin-Warri highway.
Venkatapathy explained that apart from the national benefits of the system, individuals as well got relieved as it lowered operating cost as CNG was cheaper than petrol by over 60 per cent and by over 70 per cent in the case of diesel. The foregoing is based on the prevailing pump price of petrol at N97, diesel at N165 per litre and CNG at N55 per SCM.
He noted that CNG powered vehicles also had a lower maintenance cost due to the absence of any lead in the product thus eliminating the need for frequent cleaning of spark plugs.
Refuelling, he affirmed was very safe as the cylinder was made from a special steel alloy with no wielded joints and at the workshop every cylinder was tested as per international standards before being installed.
The nation, the director noted could confidently join the league of countries using this clean fuel and reduce significantly carbon emission via vehicular exhaust especially in view of the abundant natural gas, which the country possessed.
*** Published in The Guardian Newspaper on 8th March 2012 
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