Nigerian, Austrian firms to make vehicles run on gas

Powergas Nigeria has struck a partnership with an Austrian clean tech company, ETEFA, to facilitate the conversion of city buses and trucks in Lagos and the Niger Delta to run on natural gas, as part of efforts to reduce gas flaring in the country. The companies announced the alliance during a briefing on flare gas recovery in Nigeria organised with the support by the Austrian Development Agency and the Commercial Section of the Austrian Embassy in Nigeria. They said gas flare monetisation projects could potentially save Nigeria over $2.5bn per year by reducing fuel costs in the transportation and power generation sectors by over 30 per cent. According to a statement, Powergas will provide the necessary infrastructure for the CNG supply and ETEFA will supply gas engines and associated technology. “Eventually, ETEFA intends to locally manufacture gas-fired buses, trucks and engines in Nigeria with its Nigerian partners,” it said. The Managing Director, Powergas Nigeria, Mr. Pulak Sen, said, “As a company, Powergas is committed to providing an environmentally friendly fuel source to spur economic growth and industrialisation in conjunction with reducing the carbon footprint. “We believe that natural gas-fired power generation emits up to five times less nitrogen oxides compared with diesel generation and near-zero particulate matter. Today, Nigeria’s annual diesel importation is the same as the natural gas being flared.”