Uche Cecil Izuora
Nigeria’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transition is now advancing intentionally with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) seeking Government’s support to prioritise funding.
The funding support would help deliver the new transition fuel for its proposed 100-station trucking corridor network as the skeleton of a truly national CNG infrastructure.
The IPMAN applauded President Bola Tinubu’s recent directive to roll out an additional 500 CNG fuelling stations, bringing the planned network to 1,000 stations and also recognised the 36 state governors for believing that cheaper energy must translate into cheaper transport fares in Nigeria.
In a statement jointly signed by its National President Alhaji Abubakar Shettima and the National Secretary, Hon. James Terlumun Tor, IPMAN explained that government-backed funding of this network – where supply, offtake, and market access already exist, “offers one of the fastest, most cost-effective paths to nationwide impact, directly reducing haulage costs with knock-on relief for the price of food and goods in every Nigerian market.”
According to the statement, IPMAN said it is fully committed to partnering with the FG, NNPC/NGML, and all genuine stakeholders to make this transition succeed – not just on paper, but at the pump.
It noted that IPMAN had already written formally to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and, working with its members, developed a ready-to-deploy structure for 100 CNG outlets along Nigeria’s major trucking corridors.
“For this network, IPMAN already has outlet locations along the corridors ready for deployment, established markets and offtakers for the CNG produced, and a negotiated gas supply agreement for 30 mmscld with NNPOC Gas Marketing Limited (NGML), secured through its partner Zuld Energies Limited, to feed these stations. With the supply and offtake solved, all 100 stations will be active within 90 days of receipt of funding – a shovel-ready network waiting on capital, not years of preparation,” it added.
While reiterating the readiness and willingness of its members to participate, IPMAN, however, lamented that the naira cost of daughter station equipment – compressors, dispensers, storage and tube trailers, all priced against foreign exchange – had become prohibitive given the naira’s depreciation since 2023, making it near impossible for members to raise this capital alone.
The Association further decried the frustrations of its members over the past two years in trying to bring this vision to life on the ground.
Recalling that for close to two years, the Association had engaged government bodies and agencies to support the rollout of CNG daughter stations nationwide, IPMAN expressed regrets that much of the funding under the Presidential CNG Initiative has gone to most of the entities with little or no background in downstream petroleum retail, slowing the pace of the rollout.
It noted that over 120,000 vehicles had been converted to run on CNG, yet the country still lacks a matching network of refueling stations, mother stations and service centres. “In effect, petrol-powered vehicles without petrol stations, risking an expensive display rather than a functioning energy transition,” it added.
According to IPMAN, in its March 2025 submission to the CBN Board Committee on Fiscal, Monetary and Trade Coordination, IPMAN had recommended that government partner with IPMAN – which controls over 80 per cent of petrol retail outlets nationwide to make its outlets available as CNG refill points, subsidise conversion kits through IPMAN, and immediately develop 100 CNG stations across IPMAN’s outlets along the trucking corridors as the bedrock of the programme.
“Without a holistic approach of deploying mother stations, daughter stations, and virtual pipeline systems, the Presidential CNG Initiative will be an exercise in futility,” it warned