NIPCO Commits $50m To Promote Nigeria's Energy Mix

The Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) said, it has invested over $50 million in gas infrastructure to aid diversification of Nigeria’s energy transition and reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.

The Managing Director, NIPCO Plc, Mr Suresh Kumar, who disclosed this during a facility tour of the firm in company of MD NIPCO Gas Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of firm, Mr Nagendra Verma, the integrated downstream player has deepened gas usage and market penetration in the country through massive investment in the sector.

He said, with the intentions of the federal government to do away with fuel subsidy, natural gas either or piped for auto or industrial purposes are bound to be the preferred ‘fuel of choice’ due to safety, environment, and economic and abundant availability benefits of the transition fuel in Nigeria.

He said, the decade of gas agenda of government is getting a boost as NIPCO intensifies investment in gas infrastructure to bolster the decade of gas agenda of the federal government.

According to him, the company has established Compressed Natural Gas(CNG) facilities across the country to make cars run on gas, while it is currently expanding its scope on supply of Natural Gas and constructing new pipeline infrastructure to strategic locations in the country.

Kumar said, the company has invested huge funds in local and foreign currencies in developing Nigeria’s natural gas over the years, while more projects are still in the offing.

He said: “we have spent more than $50 million on natural gas infrastructure over the years. We believe that there are lots of potential in Nigeria that can be explored for gas utilisation, and this will further boost our economy. By using indigenous gas, we can reduce subsidy burden on the federal government.

“We can reduce the importation burden and that will directly or indirectly save huge our Forex and create more employment opportunities for Nigerians. We are the pioneers. We always dream for the future. So we dreamt for natural gas utilisation in Nigeria right from 2008 and we started investing.

“We introduced this model to the government and say that look, Nigeria is a country that has abundant natural gas and instead of wasting subsidy on petrol, we should be looking at a blueprint of changing the petrol market to natural gas market,” he said.