About 7,000 additional number of filling stations across the country have registered their outlets to partake in dispensing autogas, which include Compressed Natural Gas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas into vehicles.
It was gathered, on Monday, that some Asian manufacturers of conversion kits that convert vehicles that run on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to start using LPG, LNG and CNG, had been engaged by oil marketers, as more retail outlet owners now show interest in dispensing autogas.
Recall that The PUNCH in June this year, exclusively reported that PMS retailers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that about 800 tankers were being converted to start transporting autogas to some filling stations.
It was, however, gathered on Monday that more filings stations under the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, had registered for the same purpose, as 7,000 PETROAN members were getting set to dispense autogas.
The President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, stated, “PETROAN is engaged in so many intervention projects. We’ve already engaged the manufacturers of conversion kits for LPG, LNG and CNG. We had a meeting with our Asian partners, mostly from India, and these are manufacturers that are willing to serve our purpose.
“And with that kind of encouragement coming in, I think if the government will intervene, instead of giving N8,000 each to vulnerable households, they should rather invest the money for the consistent conversion of vehicles to run on gas.
“This, of course, to a great extent will reduce the dependence on PMS, and the importation of petrol will slow down because firstly, we do not have the requisite forex to make imports efficient.”
He expressed hope that the activities in PETROAN would encourage its members to import PMS, aviation fuel or diesel, but stressed that the use of gas was the best way to cushion the high cost of petrol currently.
“We already have 7,000 retail outlets that have registered for the conversion centres and what we are asking is that the government should make funds available for these conversions. That’s another form of palliative.
“It can partner with PETROAN to fast-track the conversion projects. The company we are partnering with has capacity to produce 70,000 conversion kits every month for us. So if we target to convert 70,000 vehicles every month, in the next three to six months, we would have hundreds of thousands of vehicles to run on gas,” Gillis-Harry stated.
