The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has said it is focused on eliminating energy poverty by delivering Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) at a quarter of the price of fuel to make life easy for Nigerians and businesses.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned company, Mele Kyari also revealed thr NNPC’s plans to remove all bottlenecks hindering energy access in Africa’s biggest oil producer.
Kyari disclosed this on Saturday during a session at the 2024 ‘Future of work summit’
The company has delivered over 13 CNG stations in partnership with NIPCO Plc, a move aimed at providing very cheap alternative energy source to Premium Motor Spirit which is selling at an average of N650 per litre.
The NNPCL boss said no country can develop without access to energy citing the United States, the United Kingdom and their Western counterparts as examples of countries that have developed through energy sufficiency.
He added that the growth of every country revolves around its ability to attain energy sufficiency.
The GCEO said, “As you can see today, any time you have power production in our country exceeding 5,000 megawatt, the grid comes down. It’s very simple reason. The reason is that the grids cannot transmit it. And therefore, you have seen a consistent and very focused approach to the bottleneck in this grid. And until we do this, you cannot have the electricity that we are looking for.
“And until you use clean fuel, this is the cheapest and the cleanest access to energy that we can have in our country that is why at NNPCL, we are focused on delivering domestic infrastructure that will deliver gas into our market, into our house, into our business. And there are very few and immediate things that we are doing.
“We are focused on the very important CNG, bringing gas to drive our automobiles, our homes, our factories. In the quickest practical way, not just to remove the impact of pricing. Pricing is one thing that we have to deal with.
“I can tell you, we are underpaying for PMS costs. Because we know that energy is very important. But the only way we can do it is to substitute a cheaper and cleaner means which is why the government today is focused on delivering the CNG, providing them with free kits for the combustion of vehicles, bringing down the energy costs by at least to a quarter of what it is.
” Assuming you are going to use alternative sources of energy. So, the energy transition conversation is going on. Access to energy is the key thing. Eliminating energy poverty in our country is a major focus that we will have to pay attention to.”
Kyari said Africa only accounts for three per cent of global emissions but its countries suffer for over 70 per cent of the adverse impact of climate change.
“What we are struggling with in the sub-Saharan Africa is actually access to energy, not sanitation. This is a challenge that we have. Today, 70 per cent of our country might not have access to clean energy,” the NNPCL GCEO said.
Funding for hydro-carbon projects are drying up as commercial lending by American and European bank for oil and gas project shrinks.
Kyari said, “We have conflict, and those conflicts manifest in different forms-kidnap and so on. So, it is important to address the issue of access to resources by all of us and you simply can’t do this until you have access to energy.
“And access to energy means that not just electricity, not just oil in our cars.. We need to do something different. And which is why this country is taking the next leap.
“So I’ve seen the work and I can tell you that the focus that we have in our country today, and the last year is not political, this is reality. Deepening access to energy, through focusing and delivery of gas into a domestic market, making energy access easier.”
Our Focus Is To Bring Down Energy Cost In Nigeria With Cheap CNG- Kyari is first published on The Whistler Newspaper