Powergas, ETEFA partner to float gas-fired city buses

Presents new CNG City Bus Prototype for flare gas utilization in Nigeria The Clean, Economic and Safe Transportation (“CEST”) Program under the Gas Flare Monetisation Projects, a strategic alliance between Nigeria’s biggest Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) distributor and pioneer in “Virtual Gas Pipeline Supply”, POWERGAS, and the Austrian clean tech company ETEFA have introduced gas-fired city buses for public transport.

The introduction of the gas-fired city buses is expected to save Nigeria over US$ 2.5 billion per year by reducing fuels costs in the transportation and power generation sector by over 30%.

This was revealed during the ETEFA and Powergas Nigeria press briefing and business networking cocktail event hosted by the Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy, Guido Stock with the support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) in Lagos.
Natural Gas Flaring is one of the biggest environmental disasters of Nigeria. Annually over 7 billion Standard Cubic Meter (SCM1) of Natural Gas is being flared in Nigeria, leading to casualties of up to 2,500 individuals in the Niger Delta Region (due to gas flare related pollution & emissions). Gas flare emissions are contributing to 20% of the entire Greenhouse Gases (GHG) of the country and are causing a massive waste of energy and financial resources.

In his welcome address, the General Manager, Powergas, Sumeet Singh reiterated the company’s commitment to positively contributing to the clean environment of Nigeria. According to him, Nigeria’s annual diesel importation is the same as the Natural Gas being flared. “We know that Diesel imports are US Dollar dependent, hence increasing the cost of fuel and decreasing the country’s scarce forex reserves.

Natural Gas on the other hand is one of the most environmentally friendly energy sources. With abundant reserves of 188 tcf (Trillion Cubic Feet), Nigeria has the largest gas reserves in Africa.

As a domestically available natural resource, effective utilization is extremely important for import substitution (of liquid fuels) and forex savings. Gas Flare Reduction Program sponsored Projects can clean and process flare gas into Natural Gas, along with other by-products like Propane, Butane, LPG, etc.

Sumeet bared that, as a company, we believe that if all of Nigeria’s Gas Flare is captured and processed – it can power up to 200,000 city buses (public transport) or 200,000 trucks (commercial transport), or even double Nigeria’s power generation capacity, while significantly improving the quality of the air (lower carbon & particulate emissions). Introduction of gas-fired city buses for public transport would significantly lower ticket prices for passengers.

This would especially have a positive impact on the lower income populace who spend up to 40% of their monthly income on public transport.

In his keynote speech, the CEO ETEFA GmbH, Johann Rieger, explained that CEST Program’s targets include improving environmental and health conditions by reduction of emissions, lowering the cost of public and commercial transportation, while fostering local talent employment with technology transfer and strategic knowledge sharing.

According to Johann, in order to show the full potential of the economies of the CNG city buses, ETEFA together with leading European partners developed a high quality 12-meter CNG City Bus prototype for the special needs and infrastructure requirements in Nigeria.