How I changed my official cars – Timipre Sylva

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva says he has since converted his official cars to run on gas.

Mr Sylva said he was looking towards having vehicles in the presidential fleet and those of members of the nation’s executive council converted to use gas in place of petrol.

The minister said the conversion of the vehicles to use compressed natural gas is a step in his ministry’s plans to roll out the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) on November 30.

“Of course, I have since converted my official vehicles to gas,” Sylva told Premium Times on Wednesday.

“Beyond that, we are working on getting the members of the Executive Council of the Federation to convert their official cars to gas as a cheaper and more reliable fuel to PMS. Even cars in the presidential fleet will be converted to run on gas.

“We will also discuss with members of the National Assembly to convert their official cars to run on gas. We will kick-start that initiative soon as we plan to roll out the National Gas Expansion Programme. Hopefully, with the example we will show, we will persuade Nigerians to see gas as the preferred and reliable fuel in Nigeria.”

He said the likes of Dangote Group have reported about 50 per cent reduction in operational cost since converting their trucks to use gas.