In order to deepen the use of natural gas as an automotive fuel in the country, state-owned oil firm, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has evolved a new procurement system to facilitate the conversion of more vehicles to run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from the traditional premium motor spirit (PMS otherwise known as petrol and Automated Gas Oil (AGO) also known as diesel.
The automated system will make use of contactless smart cards with embedded IC chip, enables motorists to make instalment payments for their conversion kits and other ancillary components to enable them enjoy benefits of using a gas powered vehicle.
The card, which would be available at all the retail outlet of Green Gas Limited, the NNPC subsidiary company handling the use of CNG as motor vehicle fuels, in the ancient city of Benin, Edo State, and is one of the numerous measures GGL is putting in place to facilitate stress-free, faster and more convenient format of effecting payment for CNG accessories and ultimately increasing number of users of this resource over other energy source.
A statement from the company said the card dubbed ‘Go Green’ was part of the awareness campaign to deepen CNG use by reducing financial stress on customers wishing to benefit from the growing benefits of switching to gas as auto fuel.
Previously prospective customers had to pay fully for the conversion and the kits which had been one of the impediments in the expected large scale conversion of vehicles for CNG use.
The card enables motorists to validate the entire CNG components in their vehicles for periodic inspection, routine safety check and guide against counterfeiting of any sort.
The statement also said that the technology designed and developed locally is multi-faceted as it can be utilised for loyalty programmes and customer reward system for the ever growing motorist switching over to compressed gas as vehicular fuel.
It urged existing and prospective users of CNG for automobiles to take advantage of the measure and make good use of it in the overall interest of promoting an environment friendly fuel in the country.
About 2,000 of the cards had been issued to motorists with favourable response on its convenience with regards to payments for vehicle conversion and other ancillary things in the use of compressed natural gas as auto fuel.
GGL inaugurated its first set of outlets in 2009 and presently has seven stations in Benin with about 3,000 vehicles already converted at its fitment workshops in the ancient town.
In the same vein, scores of CNG stations by GGL are at various stages of completion in other parts of the country, particularly Lagos-Benin and Warri–Benin Expressway to further boost CNG usage across the nation.
The Group Executive Director (GED), Gas, NNPC, Mr David Ige, recently at the 2013 business forum of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) held in Lagos, stated that the initiative was a veritable way of harnessing opportunities on the gas value chain in Nigeria.
The GED had reiterated to the participants at the forum that one of the major opportunities in the gas value chain was in the effective utilisation of this resource as a vehicular fuel being very economical, safe and a clean energy source.