This Year, Vehicles In 12 States Will Run On Autogas – FG

The Federal Government has chosen 12 states to participate in the pilot phase of the conversion of gasoline and diesel vehicles to run on Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as autogas.

According to our source, engineers from four automobile manufacturers have already begun receiving training on how to convert vehicles assembled or manufactured in Nigeria to use autogas instead of petrol or diesel.

Dayo Adeshina, Programme Manager, National Liquefied Petroleum Gas Expansion Implementation Plan, told our correspondent on Friday that the autogas initiative’s LPG component would be implemented in 12 states.

The National LPG Expansion Implementation Plan, which is housed in the Vice President’s Office, has been working to increase the use of gas for cooking, automobiles, and other purposes.

Lagos, Ogun, Bauchi, Gombe, FCT, Niger, Katsina, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, and Bayelsa are among the 12 states, according to Adeshina.

Since 2019, the Federal Government has been pushing for a transition from gasoline and diesel to autogas, declaring 2020 as the year of gas.

It has continued to introduce programs to encourage citizens to use gas as an alternative fuel, one of which is the autogas policy.

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For example, in September 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria established a N250 billion facility for the National Gas Expansion Programme as part of measures to improve access to finance for private sector investments in the domestic gas value chain.

“I am in charge of the LPG expansion programme; yes, there is an autogas element to it, but it is the LPG aspect that I am responsible for,” Adeshina said of the measures taken to ensure gas penetration through the autogas initiative.

“In this regard, we are focusing our efforts on 12 pilot states, and our strategy is straightforward.” We are beginning with the state governments by obtaining the vehicles that they use in those states.

“For example, in the last eight years, Lagos has seen vehicles from GAC, JAG, Toyota, and Coscharis.” So, we went to those four companies and told them that we would like to train their engineers to convert vehicles that they supplied to Lagos State already.

He stated that the government had been conducting sensitization and awareness campaigns in the 12 states and would continue to push for the conversion of vehicles to run on autogas, given the country’s abundant gas reserves.

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