International Gas and Energy Company, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, which specializes in gas trading, distribution and cylinder business, has signed a joint venture scheme with the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to promote the conversion of vehicles from the use of fuel and diesel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
Already, the company has invested N1 billion in the project and unveiled plans to increase its investment to $100 million (N15.8 billion) in the next few months. Borkir International has already built two CNG stations and plans to build additional eight before the end of the year.
Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday in Lagos, Vice-President of the Dangote Group, Sanni Dangote, disclosed that Borkir International has already signed a contract with Dangote Cement to convert at least 5,000 of its trucks from diesel to CNG. According to him, the company plans to configure 20,000 vehicles to use CNG, as vehicular fuel, which he said, was more economically and commercially viable than the traditional use of fuel and diesel.
Dangote stated: “When we looked at the numbers of vehicles and trucks in Nigeria and the volume of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and diesel that are consumed daily, we took a very good commercial decision to see how to convert our vehicles to run on gas and this intervention will bring about a cleaner environment and will be of commercial value to end users.
“There is no doubt that this initiative will be more economically and commercially viable. Nigeria is one of the largest gas producers in the world and we believe the country will be saving so much from the utilization of CNG in vehicles.
“We started this initiative with Dangote Cement trucks and we also came up with the idea to expand the conversion to commercial vehicle owners. We have done some demonstration on 25 vehicles. We have so far invested close to N1 billion with plans to inject additional $20 million before the end of the year. In a couple of months, our investment in this project will be over $100 billion.
“Everybody knows that gas is a cleaner energy than diesel and petrol. We have concluded plans to ensure that the gas is available in our major roads and high ways. We will ensure that the price remain stable because we have entered into price guarantee arrangement to avoid fluctuation and it is expected to last for a long period”.
Speaking on the partnership, the Managing Director of NGC, Saidu Muhammed, said that the company was interested in promoting viable projects in the gas sub-sector like the one with Dangote Group. According to him, the Federal Government has laid a solid framework for gas infrastructure expansion within the domestic market market through the Nigeria gas master plan.
He added that NGC was committed to the gas master plan, which is to stimulate the multiplier effect of gas in the domestic economy, position Nigeria competitively in high value export markets and guarantee the long term energy security of Nigeria. He assured of continuous flow of gas to the various CNG plant across the country to ensure the sustainability of the initiative.
