According to the Federal Government, gas businesses that lack the capacity to construct pipes for gas distribution will no longer be granted licences.
According to the government, this was necessary to deter the use of roadways for the transportation of compressed natural gas.
This revelation was made by Ekperikpe Ekpo, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), on Wednesday while he was in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State.
In order to conduct a real-time assessment of the CNG explosion at Ita Oshin on Saturday, Ekpo travelled to Abeokuta.
Gasco Marine’s CNG petrol tanker experienced a brake failure, collided with the road barricade and burst into flames, leaving one person dead and several cars completely destroyed.
After being welcomed at the state by Governor Dapo Abiodun and his deputy, Noimot Salako-Oyedele, Ekpo said he was sent by President Bola Tinubu to investigate the incident’s underlying cause and express sympathy to the Ogun State people.
Ekpo stated that the nation needs to switch from fossil fuel to compressed natural gas (CNG). However, he also disclosed that he had instructed Farouk Ahmed, the CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, to refrain from awarding licences to those who are unable to pipe CNG to the final consumers.
The gas minister stressed that virtual gas transportation needed to end and stated that the Federal Government was working nonstop to construct pipelines that would allow CNG to be transported smoothly.
He said that doing so would save lives and property by averting explosions on the roadway.
Due to the volatility of gas, the Federal Government is making every effort to minimise virtual gas transit, particularly with the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano pipeline.
“To ensure that we are never again in danger, I have instructed the chief executive of the authority that any permit that is issued in the future must be capable of being piped to the end customers by the corporation.
“As a ministry, we are investigating ways to cut down on a significant amount of virtual petrol transportation. We are investing a lot of money in building the infrastructure for gas pipes in order to avoid using virtual transportation and instead use the pipelines for transportation. these will lessen the frequency of incidents like these and relieve traffic on our roadways, he said.
Ekpo emphasised that CNG is still a superior fuel substitute than petrol in spite of the occurrence and urged Nigerians not to give up.
Looking at what happened in Port Harcourt, where so many cars burned and people died, this is better than even petrol. We should proceed in this manner, he continued.
