NIPCO Boss Advocates for Phase Deregulation
The managing director of NIPCO Plc, Vankataraman Venkatapathy, has called for phase deregulation petroleum in order to reduce the hid economic implication of full deregulation. He noted that since greater populations of Nigerian are poor, a sudden change in policy from regulated market to deregulate may be disastrous and inimical to the nation populace and bad for growth in the economy. “Lots of caution need be put in place so as not to jeopardize the overall interest of the people”, he stated.
Vankataraman stated this whilesSpeaking as a Discussant at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC) which held at Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, recently. President Muhammadu Buhari [PMB ] needs be commended for the extra care being put in place on the deregulation saga as he seems to be on the side of the masses in line with my thought on the issue.
He noted that a very viable option pending when the populace will be able to adjust fully to any likely effect of deregulation is for government to look more critically into the area of gas utilisation as alternative fuel, stressing that the nation has over 185 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas untapped.He cautioned that government should be mindful of the low income earners in preparing a holistic approach to the burning issue of deregulation of the downstream sector with emphasis on premium motor spirit (PMS).
He suggested the need for cogent rules and guidelines that will take into consideration the need to promote the usage of natural gas to power vehicles in order to reduce undue reliance on petrol. Natural gas utilization could be exploited by encouraging use of CNG powered vehicles to reduce dependence on petrol and thus serve as ways of preparing grounds for deregulation of PMS.
Wealthy people who could afford new cars that will be very easy to convert with little cost could be implored to convert. He noted that the nation’s auto policy could be made to accommodate the making of cars using dual model of fuelling to ensure that at the level of production or assembling gas is usable by motorist. Although Vankataraman agreed that deregulation is good, he however emphasised that the peculiar nature of Nigeria has to be taken into consideration so that the larger majority of the population will not suffer too much.
Now is the time to look critically into the area of natural gas utilisation to power vehicles. Green Gas Ltd, a joint venture (JV) of NIPCO and NGC is already on this line of thought with the conversion of over 4000 vehicles so far using gas at its over eight stations in the city of Benin, Edo State and Ibafo in Ogun State and plans to put in more stations in due course”, he said.
He stated that the JV initiative had further shown that motorist could actually patronise other vehicular fuel should there be avenues for them to get the fuel though more CNG stations and easy access. He noted that if concept of conversing gas to fuel for powering of automobiles and industrial machines is supported by all stakeholders it will immensely benefit all.
He stated that with the JV initiative motorist now enjoy full benefits of running their automobiles on natural gas and at the same time serving as veritable avenue for the nation’s abundant gas resources to be utilised. He added, his company has made huge investments alongside the JV Partner in infrastructures and popularization of natural gas as good alternative to power machines and vehicles..