Oil marketers take delivery of 100 CNG buses

Oil marketers have received about 100 gas mass transit buses they promised to donate following the removal of fuel subsidies.

The Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, revealed this to our correspondent on the sideline of a media parley at the just-concluded 17th edition of the 2023 Expo of the Oil Trading Logistics Africa Downstream Energy Week, in Lagos on Friday.

He noted that the promised buses had been ordered from Innoson Motors and delivered.

“Although MOMAN has nothing to do with the buses, however, those involved have ordered them from Innoson Motors, and I know they have taken delivery of them already. They are just waiting for the right time to launch them,” he said.

The Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria had shortly after subsidy removal in June called for increased gas investments to provide an alternative to petrol use.

It also pledged to donate between 50 and 100 compressed-natural-gas-powered buses to cushion the shock on the masses.

During oil marketers’ visit to President Tinubu in Abuja, DAPPMAN chairman, who doubles as the managing director of Northwest Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, Winifred Akpani, said the meeting was to discuss the best course of action in the post-subsidy regime.

Akpani said the oil marketers lived proactively and at the forefront of mitigating the effects of the removal of the petrol subsidy.

“We have made suggestions today, we can move this forward. What we came up with is that over time, we have all depended on PMS because it was cheap.

“We didn’t develop our gas. There is electricity. So, we will have alternate sources of energy. It does not have to be PMS,” she said.

According to Akpani, the country has gas in abundance but was no fresh investment.

“Nobody’s going to invest in an economy that is not free. You’re going to have restrictions.”

“By July, we’re going to begin to see what is being put in place to help, and to make sure that people can go back to seamless living,” she stated.