The Federal Government plans to provide alternative petrol – Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-for the common man that will cost between N95 to N97 per litre, it has said.
The government said the initiative would enable it cut down on huge payments running into trillions of naira spent annually on petrol subsidy payment.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, gave this information to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking further, he said it was going to reduce the pump prices of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol to make it more affordable, the minister said that there were plans to provide an alternative fuel that is cheaper. Petrol currently sells at N145 per litre, even with a government subsidy.
He disclosed the fuel CNG had undergone a pilot project in Benin City where over 10,000 vehicles were already running on it.
With CNG, Sylva said that the cost of fuel would fall to about N95 per litre.
“What we have decided is that we should try and give the masses an alternative. This will move the masses to CNG,” he said.
“That is transport vehicles for example, out of the PMS loop to be using the CNG. CNG cost less that the subsidised PMS. Per litre the subsidized rate of the PMS is N145 per litre. CNG will cost about N95 to N97 per litre.”
Sylva posited that with this, Nigerians will never experience fuel scarcity again.
Speaking further on the $62b court settlement payment that Nigeria is expecting from the International oil companies, IoC, he explained that the process is such a cumbersome one to analyse because it was a long time that $20 per barrel ceased to be a windfall.
He posited that from the look of things of the reconciliation of the time it ceased to be for the companies and since it was not a stolen fund stacked somewhere, the federal government and the companies simply have to settle it amicably.
He stated emphatically that “there is no $62 billion anywhere that any company can pay.”
According to him, the industry has been stagnant for a very long time due to the non-passage of the bill, which the ministry has now planned to lobby the National Assembly to pass in bulk.
He lamented that the Nigerian petroleum industry has not moved forward, noting that at his first appearance in the industry the country was already producing 2million barrel per day and projecting to produce 4million barrel per day by this time.
He recalled that then the United Arab Emirates was producing 2.7million barrel per day.
