DANGOTE TO CONVERT 6,000 MORE DIESEL TRUCKS TO CNG

The Dangote Group plans to convert 6,000 more diesel-powered trucks to operate on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

(Source: Tribune Online)

This move builds on the 4,000 trucks the company has already transitioned to CNG.

Michael Oluwagbemi, Programme Coordinator of the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI), revealed this in a recent video shared on PCNGI’s X handle.

He noted that companies such as Dangote and BUA are embracing the CNG initiative by switching their trucks from diesel to gas to reduce operational costs.

“Dangote just signed up to have more than 6,000 of their trucks converted in addition to the existing 4,000. BUA is doing the same thing.

“So, we have all of these conversions ongoing. I’m very confident that we’ll be on track to have over 150,000 to 250,000 conversions done at the end of this year, at the current pace,” he stated.

Oluwagbemi expressed satisfaction with the way Nigerians have embraced the CNG initiative.

“I’m very pleased by the response of Nigerians. They’re more receptive. From the get-go, I always said that the failure or the success of this programme would depend on Nigerians. I think, by and large, Nigerians are receptive to this message. They’re receptive to Mr President’s message.

“CNG is a patriotic fuel. So, I can see the natural receptiveness of Nigerians to this programme, it’s great, and I’m happy about it,” he added.

“We can only achieve all that we’re doing here today as a facilitating organisation. At the end of the day, we are an intervention-facilitating organisation at PCNGI.

“We have government agencies that have different roles to play across the value chain. That’s, of course, one of them is the Nigerian Automotive Development Council. They’re the ones that actually regulate the conversion workshops and make sure that they are keeping to the safety standards.

“We work with them very closely. We help them launch the conversion workshop regulatory framework, which they’ve already launched and is already operational. We work very closely with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria to ensure that kits and cylinders coming into the country meet all the minimum standards.

“We’ve gone on inspections globally as well as domestically with manufacturing plants to ensure that they align with SON standards. And SON has worked very closely with us on the safety issue. The Nigerian Mainstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has been working with us to ensure that we are ready when it comes to add-ons and establishment of data stations and motor stations and licensing them, removing the red tape and making sure we have an accelerated form of actually getting these licenses so that these investments can come in,” he noted.

He stated that the agency is collaborating with the Ministries of Transportation and Technology on training and capacity building, noting that over 5,000 technicians have been trained since last year as a result of this partnership.

“As I said, we are an interventionist, facilitating organisation, a presidential initiative. The collaboration with MDGIF under the NMDPRA helped us to ensure that about six companies that are involved in the CNG sector were funded under their programme last year. And these six companies are rolling out daughter (refilling) stations, they are rolling out mother stations.

“One was recently ground broken in Akwa Ibom State by the Minister of State for Gas and we are collaborating with his office as well. We are collaborating with the Minister of Transport. We are collaborating with the Minister of Finance. We are collaborating even with the Minister of Information.

“At the end of the day, I think that this kind of programme, which seeks to actually revolutionise the sector, cannot be done in silos. You must be able to only achieve your goal when you work with other principal regulatory agencies, as well as government agencies, as the case may be, and ministries. These ministries and ministers are important to us, and we continue to work with them closely to ensure we achieve our goals,” he added.

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Source: punchng.com