Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday said his intention during his regime was to develop the nation’s natural gas for vehicles to use and reduce dependence on imported petrol.

Obasanjo said he gave out licences to companies in a bid to achieve this, adding that by now, 50 per cent of the vehicles in the country should have been running on gas.



The former President stated these during a courtesy visit by the management of Nipco Plc to him at his Presidential Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

In 2006, the Obasanjo administration gave out licences to three companies, Nipco Plc, Contact Global and Global Steel, for the development of Compressed Natural Gas for vehicles.

But it was gathered that only Nipco, which later went into a partnership with the Nigeria Gas Company to form Green Gas Limited, had invested significantly in the project since then.

While reacting to comments by the Managing Director, Nipco, Mr. Venkataraman Venkatapathy, Obasanjo said, “When I gave the licence in my time, the idea was to use what we had and by now, we could have put half of all the vehicles on gas.”

Venkatapathy had earlier said the replacement of petrol by the CNG would save Nigeria the much-needed foreign exchange on importation of petrol.

He said, “The CNG is a superior auto fuel alternative to liquid fuels mainly petrol and diesel, specifically for countries like Nigeria, which is blessed with abundant (over 186 trillion cubic feet) availability of natural gas that remains untapped.

“To replace 20 per cent of the current petrol consumption of Nigeria, natural gas required is less than five per cent of the total domestic gas consumed currently and less than one per cent of the current gas production. Foreign exchange saved will be close to $2bn.”

According to him, in Benin City, Edo State, over 4,000 vehicles run on the CNG which resulted in replacing 20 million litres of petrol from 2012 to 2015 and forex savings of over $9m.

He said Green Gas had developed nine operational CNG stations, with three stations under completion and five under construction.

A former Special Assistant on Petroleum Resources to President Obasanjo, Dr. Muhammed Ibrahim, who was on the Nipco team, said, “I was one of the team members when President Obasanjo was in office in 2006 that initiated the full concept of development of gas for vehicles and other applications in the country. It was during his regime that President Obasanjo awarded three licences to three companies to invest in the promotion and diffusion of Compressed Natural Gas for vehicular application in the country.

“But because of the capital-intensive and high-tech nature of the project, only one company today after 10 years has invested millions of dollars in the project such that the entire Benin City is encircled with a network of gas pipelines with about seven CNG gas stations providing the CNG to more than 4,000 vehicles.

He said the company had constructed the largest CNG station on the African continent in Ibafo, Ogun State.

http://www.punchng.com/planned-make-vehicles-run-gas-obasanjo/

more on

http://www.blackberrybabes.com/2016/06/my-plan-was-to-make-vehicles-run-on-gas.html

This was a noble idea.

And hopefully, it eventually works. But Baba, even though we sometimes pretend as if you do not exist, you somehow keep getting back into the News, and with that we cannot but remember you gave us Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Nigerians are starving now because of that your single decision.

GOD bless BAbA OBJ for his achievement/visionary.The shoeless one Came to steal/Loot nd destroyed

Ok......

What

Yea...he 'PLANNED'indeed silly excuses!!!!!!

Baba of Africa, you're greater than Zik of his village.

Stories.

ITS JUST THAT OBJ IS A NECESSARY EVIL. AFTER WASTING ABOUT 16BILLION DOLLARS IN POWER UNACCOUNTED FOR TILL DATE, PROBABLY HE STILL HAS A HANGOVER OF HIS THIRD TERM. REALLY SHAMEFUL. GOD HELP US WITH ALL THESE DAILY LIES AND DIVERSIONS FOR REAL ISSUES OF NIGERIA.

For me gas is more important than gas

Atleast the south East(imo and anambra) has more gas than any region,ondo also has enough gas to power the West

The gas master plan in Nigeria need to be redrawn, the sector in to be unbundled to allow investors come in and believe me if that happens a 12.5kg of gas will sale below 1500 and this will kill petrol because this will give u 40 hrs of constant electricity with the average generator
And the new master plan should be in a way that companies can build power plants and services a radius of 5km and for a 45% tax waver.. .. And the bill in such region goes to the government
But we have leaders who think inside the their a$$

HungerBAD:
This was a noble idea.

And hopefully, it eventually works. But Baba, even though we sometimes pretend as if you do not exist, you somehow keep getting back into the News, and with that we cannot but remember you gave us Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Nigerians are starving now because of that your single decision.

You have the same brain with buhari.

I hate it when this man speaks.
The problems of nigeria started with him

HungerBAD:
This was a noble idea.

And hopefully, it eventually works. But Baba, even though we sometimes pretend as if you do not exist, you somehow keep getting back into the News, and with that we cannot but remember you gave us Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Nigerians are starving now because of that your single decision.

I hope you will not commit suicide one day cos of your hatred towards the existence of GEJ

Hmm

malele:

The problems o nigeria started with him

Are you alright?

Does Obasanjo resemble Lord Lugard, Gowon, Buhari, Babangida or Abacha?

fabfunmi:
Yea...he 'PLANNED'indeed
silly excuses!!!!!!

It wasnt only planned, it was actually executed in edo state. Can you really blame a past leader for his successor not continuing his initiative?

Baba Ota is speaking

Should we nw give u another chance to put d plan to work? Abi y is he telling us?

Obasanjo thank God you did not succeed, because the suffering would have been too much for Nigerians. Only touch light phone wey come during your era, SIM card was sold for 30k.

Agimor:
Stories.

for d gods

[s]

eleko1:
GOD bless BAbA OBJ for his achievement/visionary.The shoeless one Came to steal/Loot nd destroyed

[/s]

And how is that an achievement? Obasanjo is the biggest looter PDP ever had.

This is buka-talk from an old man. Why didn't you start with cars that run on the usual petrol?

Nearly doesn't kill a bird

The moment una step down from power dats when u guys start telling uds what u planned and did not plan on doing.. Rubbish!!

irunooboo:

An iPod spotted lol

And couldn't achieve it in 8 years!

Why give licenses to private companies instead of creating employment through it.
But that picture no be here oh.

i have alwaysz liked this man....
sometimes i wish he'd had the third term.

hez d only president with a long term vision.

my parents often look me one kind when they see me eulogize Obj...(they are ardent GEJ fans, esp Mother who thinks GEJ x Just perfect gentleman)

But Obj remains my man. he modenized nigeria for chris sake, promoted and brought a lot of investorz faith back in naija.

he has a habit of building gigantaun edifices too. no other presido does that. By now am sure we could be boastin of five 56 story scrapers instead of thesse ugandan style mid rises dotting the landscape like a leper's legion

he has a charm offensive too. if he was presido, wt all these agitations in My SE, u could ve seen him attend one ofala festival, throw banters , tell u one of his gurlfriends before before was a biafran and he took her from Ojukwu ( he would crack this joke while dippin hands deep in Onugwu soup). u know these kinda chivalry and banter can mellow peoples hearts even in hard times.