An old State House petrol station in Abuja now sells CNG. The government says 2,000 more units are coming

A petrol station that once belonged to the State House in Karu, Abuja, had been lying idle. On Friday it reopened selling compressed natural gas, with a workshop on site to convert cars.

What opened

The station was rebuilt by Rolling Energy, a private firm, in partnership with the State House and the Presidential CNG Initiative (Pi-CNG), Nairametrics and Vanguard reported. The State House provided the site. Its Permanent Secretary, Temitope Fashedemi, said the State House had not spent any naira on it.

Vanguard and ThisDay say the station can refuel about 150 vehicles a day, depending on cylinder size and pressure. The conversion centre is expected to convert about 12 vehicles a day. Vanguard reports that staff will later be able to bring their own cars for conversion.

Rolling Energy's chief executive, Mubarak Danbatta, said the firm already runs sites in Ilorin and Abuja and is preparing two more in Kano and two in Kaduna. He said the firm is aiming for "close to 15 facilities nationwide" by the end of the year, Vanguard reported.

No CNG pump price for the station was given. Our latest market figure, from the marketers' association MEMAN on 21 October, was ₦380 to ₦500 per standard cubic metre.

The bigger numbers

Ismaeel Ahmed, who heads Pi-CNG, called the Karu site "almost our 106th station across the country in less than two years", ThisDay reported. He said about 170 more are being built or waiting for licences from the downstream regulator, NMDPRA.

He said the President has directed 2,000 more refuelling units, in two phases of 1,500 and 500, due between this year and early next year, according to ThisDay and Vanguard. Vanguard says they will be funded through the MDGIF. Nairametrics reported only "about 500" units through the fund, so the figures are not settled.

Ahmed said private investors have committed about $2.6 billion to CNG. "The market has been proven, and investors are trooping in," he said. He added that fares on routes with CNG buses have fallen by 30 to 40 per cent, and that the Kano to Katsina fare dropped from ₦3,000 to ₦4,000 to about ₦1,500.

How many stations are there?

That depends on who is counting. Ahmed's 106 appears to be stations under the Pi-CNG programme. In the same Vanguard report, another passage put operational stations at "about 160". Earlier this week NNPC's chief executive, Bayo Ojulari, told a conference in Abu Dhabi that Nigeria has more than 400 commercial CNG stations. Read that story. The counts may cover different things, such as conversion centres or private stations outside the programme, but none of the reports explains the gap.

What it means for you

More stations mean shorter trips to refill a converted car or bus, which is the main worry for drivers thinking of switching. If you live in Abuja or a city where CNG buses run, check whether fares on your route have dropped. Before converting, find out where your nearest station is and whether it is open every day. Thinking of converting? What the switch involves.