Gas Masterplan: FG To Phase Out Kerosene, Make Gas Available For Cars

By Fola James

The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources Timipre Silva said the Buhari administration has rolled out plans to  make cooking gas affordable for all Nigerians.

The minister who disclosed this in Abuja, the nation’s capital also said the federal government has also directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and other oil marketers to begin the installation of Compressed Natural Gas pumps at filling stations, so that Nigerians can begin to use CNG, rather than petrol to power their vehicles.

As part of the gas-for-all plan, the federal government has developed a process where gas cylinders will be rented out to Nigerians at affordable rates, for those who can afford to purchase the commodity.

The market price of a 12. 5 kg NNPC branded cylinder is between N15, 000 and N20,000, while the tokunbo or foreign used is slightly below that price.

The high cost of the product has taken it beyond the reach of many Nigerians who have turned to kerosene, which in most cases, is also very scarce, for their cooking.

In the new LPG policy,  the minister said the government will set up 32,000 micro distribution centres for cooking gas across the country, which would see the engagement of 5,000 workers.

He explained that the Buhari administration was seriously pushing for the use of the CNG in cars instead of the continued use of petrol.

These are part of the overall plan to totally deregulate the down-stream oil sector.

According to Silva, government will try to deepen the penetration of cooking gas among Nigerians by making it affordable.

He said“Today the reason why people cannot really use gas or why the penetration is low is because the initial capital outlay in using gas is quite high to the ordinary man.

So what we are doing is to try and see how people can have access without necessarily investing all that money upfront.”

He said the government is in the process of facing out kerosene for domestic or commercial cooking.

“With this we believe that gas will now begin to compete with other cooking fuels, because today the advantage that kerosene has over gas is that if you don’t have the money to buy a litre of kerosene, you can buy a bottle or half a bottle.

“But when we roll out this programme, gas will become more affordable and we believe that a lot more people will use gas,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, analysts say they are worried that the policy, laudable as it is may end up not achieving the real target.