The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGi) has said the total number of conversion centres in the country will reach 200 by the end of the year and 500 by 2025.
The PCNGi Programme Director and Chief Executive, Engr. Michael Oluwagbemi made the disclosure at the launch of Portland Gas limited Conversion centre in the Kado area of Abuja yesterday.
He said: “Portland and NASENI initiative is emblematic of what we consider our greatest success in the last one year. We went from seven conversion centres, to 170, there’s not a single one of those that were built by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“These were investments of people, companies like Portland, and the partnership of the public sector to achieve that. And I look forward to next year, where we take that beyond conversion centres, and even go into the refueling stations.”
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He said with over a thousand technicians already trained this year, and many more that will be trained next year, the future of innovation, entrepreneurship will propel Nigeria to its next level of creativity.
Oluwagbemi said, “Our target this year was 100, so we have 200. Next year, we’ve set a target of 500 for us. I believe we will blow it up.”
He said the county needs every conversion centre “Because every conversion center moves us closer in terms of conversion capacity.”
“Here, Portland can do 12 conversions a day. If it’s working on a 12-hour shift, where this place is running 24-7, then multiply that by 300, taking a conservative estimate of 80% use,” he added.
He said: “The reality is that every time we open this conversion centre, we have the ability to do more conversions, and we cannot convert enough. Our country’s addiction to diesel and petrol is making goods expensive, driving inflation, making our products less competitive on an export basis, but we have no reason to be dependent on petrol and diesel. God has blessed us with gas, much cheaper, much safer, reliable and of course, it’s environmentally friendly.”
Portland Gas CEO, Engr. Folajimi Mohammed in his remarks about the new conversion centre said: “In terms of technical details, what we have here is a full state-of-the-art conversion center, where we have been able to segment different parts of the conversions from the mechanical part of it to the electrical and then the calibration. And of course, the calibration can be done without gas.
“So, what we do here is a turnkey solution, where from the conversion part of it, you can make sure that when you leave here within an hour or thereabouts, you’re able to make sure that you have a fully converted CNG car. And when I mean fully converted CNG car, I mean, it’s still a hybrid. You can have the option to switch from petrol to gas where you want to.”