FG RECORDS 160 OPERATIONAL CNG STATIONS, TARGETS 500 MORE
Read Time:3 Minute, 21 Second
By: Hammad Fasasi
The Federal Government has disclosed that Nigeria currently has about 160 operational Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refuelling stations, while another 170 facilities are at various stages of development and licensing as part of efforts to expand the use of alternative fuels and reduce transportation costs.
The Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles (Pi-CNG), Ismaeel Ahmed, disclosed this on Friday during the commissioning of a CNG Integrated Refuelling Unit in Karu, Abuja.
The facility was established through a partnership involving the State House, Pi-CNG and Electric Vehicles, and Rolling Energy.
Ahmed said Nigeria had moved beyond the experimental phase of CNG adoption, noting that private investors had committed about $2.6bn to developing the necessary infrastructure across the country.
He added that the Federal Government was accelerating the expansion of refuelling facilities, following President Bola Tinubu’s directive for another phase of infrastructure development to improve access to CNG nationwide.
“This is almost our 106th station across the country in less than two years. This is not beginning any longer. The market has been proven,” he said.
He noted that investors were committing $2.6bn in private investment, while the President had directed the establishment of about 500 additional infrastructure units through the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF).
According to Ahmed, the focus was no longer on proving the viability of the initiative but on expanding its reach to meet the needs of Nigeria’s population of about 220 million people and an estimated 12 million vehicles.
He said about 160 refuelling stations were currently operational, while another 170 were undergoing development or awaiting regulatory approvals from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
Ahmed added that further facilities were expected to become operational between now and early 2027 as part of the government’s expansion plans.
He called on more private investors to participate in the initiative, stressing that increased investment was necessary to provide adequate refuelling infrastructure for the country’s large vehicle population.
“A lot of entrepreneurs are seeing the need for this, and they are coming in, and we are calling them to come in and invest more,” he said.
The Pi-CNG chairman observed that it had taken Nigeria about 60 years to establish 24,000 petrol stations, most of which were privately owned.
He also disclosed that the deployment of CNG-powered buses had reduced transportation fares by between 30 and 40 per cent on some routes where the vehicles were operating.
Ahmed cited routes in Abuja, Lagos and Kano, including the Kano-Katsina corridor, where passengers now pay considerably less than the previous fares.
“It has significantly reduced about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of transportation fees in the routes where CNG buses are ferrying. Our goal now is to extend this to every nook and cranny of where commercial vehicles and their high-traffic corridors,” he said.
He explained that the reduction was determined by comparing fares charged by commercial transport operators before and after the introduction of CNG-powered buses on the same routes.
The development comes as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to promote natural gas as a cheaper alternative to petrol following the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023, which contributed to a sharp rise in transportation costs.
Nigeria has significant natural gas reserves, although much of the resource remains underutilised, with considerable volumes historically lost through gas flaring.
Speaking at the commissioning, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Temitope Peter Fashedemi, said the facility demonstrated the government’s commitment to promoting CNG as an alternative transportation fuel and encouraging private-sector investment.
He explained that the project involved converting an abandoned petrol dispensing station owned by the State House into a CNG refuelling and vehicle conversion centre.
According to him, the State House provided the existing facility, while Rolling Energy financed its rehabilitation and the installation of the required equipment without any government expenditure on the project.
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