Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has commended NIPCO Plc’s commitment to the development of requisite infrastructure to enhance effective utilization of Nigeria’s gas resources.
Sylva disclosed this when he visited the NIPCO exhibition stand at the two-day National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) Consultative Forum hosted by the Imo State Government in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in Owerri, Imo State.
The minister, who was received by the Assistant General Manager, Corporate Affairs of NIPCO Plc, Lawal Taofeek, expressed delight by the enormous resources the company has invested in the Gas Sector aside from the giant impacts it has made in white products retail business in Nigeria.
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He acknowledged NIPCO’S support for his ministry’sinitiative to encourage a timely switch to gas as a viable alternative energy source, a development being championed by the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) under the leadership of Mohamed Ibrahim, whom he described as a colossus in the nation’s hydrocarbon industry.
He stated that the Federal Government is vigorously pursuing its gas agenda, noting that the NGEP would impact positively on the Nigerian economy.
Welcoming the minister and his entourage including the Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Paul Emeziem who represented Governor Hope Uzodimma, Lawal recalled the enormous support received from the former Minister of Energy,hrh Edward Daukoru whom Sylva worked with as Special Assistant. “He was very much involved in the company’s emergence as one of the three firms granted licenses to develop Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) infrastructures and gas dispensing outlets to enable motorists to have alternative energy sources apart from white products in 2009,” he said.
He noted that the development resulted in the company’s inauguration of eight CNG stations in Benin, Edo State, and Ibafo, Ogun State and further putting up the biggest gas compression plant in West Africa in Ogun State.
According to Lawal, NIPCO’S intervention in the Gas Sector also birthed the construction of about 10,500 MT LPG storage facility saying that since the inauguration of NGEP by the Minister in January 2020, the company has keyed into the project with a determination to offer meaningful support to enhance massive switch to gas as an energy source for vehicles and industrial concerns.
