Nigeria's cars 'soon to be powered by natural gas' - biogas too?
Quicknote biogas potential
Earlier, we pointed to Pakistan's impressive and successful effort to getting the nation's cars to convert from gasoline to compressed natural gas. We also indicated that there is a global push towards the extensive use of biogas, both as an energy source for stationary as well as for mobile applications. Combine the two developments, and in the future, we might see biogas displace liquid fuels, especially in the global South. The easiest way to get there is for countries to first switch to compressed natural gas. Once such a CNG infrastructure and the cars that go with it are in place, there is no stopping the use of biogas later on.
Nigeria, both an oil exporter and a biofuel producer, is exactly following this route. The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) recently announced that cars in the country will be running on compressed natural gas in an attempt to find alternative fuel sources amidst the rising price of petrol. The NGC said staff of the company had already left the country for Argentina to be trained on how to establish and run the CNG stations. Chairman and board of director of the NGC, Solomon Agiemwonyi, made the assertion at the company’s 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the years 2003 and 2004 in Abuja on Thursday.
His words: "We are establishing the first natural gas filling stations at Warri-Benin-Lagos Expressway before December this year. We believe it is much cheaper than petrol and diesel, and it is environmentally friendly." He said in doing so, Nigeria would be following in the footsteps of Pakistan where more than a million vehicles have been converted to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), and 985 CNG stations are in operation with another 200 under construction in different parts of the country as at July 2006.
Ogiewonyi said the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) owes the NGC N8 billion ($62.3 million), about 60% of debts owed to the company, but said it would continue to sell gas to the company now broken into 18 independent entities, while it strives to convert the debt into equity in any of the 18 splinter companies of the PHCN. "The issue of customer indebtedness has been a major concern to the NGC. At the end of May 2006, total debt owed to the NGC was N13.398 billion ($103.6 million), made up of N10.22 billion ($79.4 million) owed by the Nigerian government’s companies and N3.176 billion ($24.1 million) by the private sector. "PHCN alone owes $62.3 million representing 60% of the total debt."
[Entry ends here]
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: CNG :: methane :: biogas :: Nigeria :: Africa ::
Earlier, we pointed to Pakistan's impressive and successful effort to getting the nation's cars to convert from gasoline to compressed natural gas. We also indicated that there is a global push towards the extensive use of biogas, both as an energy source for stationary as well as for mobile applications. Combine the two developments, and in the future, we might see biogas displace liquid fuels, especially in the global South. The easiest way to get there is for countries to first switch to compressed natural gas. Once such a CNG infrastructure and the cars that go with it are in place, there is no stopping the use of biogas later on.
Nigeria, both an oil exporter and a biofuel producer, is exactly following this route. The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) recently announced that cars in the country will be running on compressed natural gas in an attempt to find alternative fuel sources amidst the rising price of petrol. The NGC said staff of the company had already left the country for Argentina to be trained on how to establish and run the CNG stations. Chairman and board of director of the NGC, Solomon Agiemwonyi, made the assertion at the company’s 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the years 2003 and 2004 in Abuja on Thursday.
His words: "We are establishing the first natural gas filling stations at Warri-Benin-Lagos Expressway before December this year. We believe it is much cheaper than petrol and diesel, and it is environmentally friendly." He said in doing so, Nigeria would be following in the footsteps of Pakistan where more than a million vehicles have been converted to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), and 985 CNG stations are in operation with another 200 under construction in different parts of the country as at July 2006.
Ogiewonyi said the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) owes the NGC N8 billion ($62.3 million), about 60% of debts owed to the company, but said it would continue to sell gas to the company now broken into 18 independent entities, while it strives to convert the debt into equity in any of the 18 splinter companies of the PHCN. "The issue of customer indebtedness has been a major concern to the NGC. At the end of May 2006, total debt owed to the NGC was N13.398 billion ($103.6 million), made up of N10.22 billion ($79.4 million) owed by the Nigerian government’s companies and N3.176 billion ($24.1 million) by the private sector. "PHCN alone owes $62.3 million representing 60% of the total debt."
[Entry ends here]
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: CNG :: methane :: biogas :: Nigeria :: Africa ::
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