Engineer Martin Onovo, petroleum industry expert and former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), has described the federal government’s compressed natural gas (CNG) policy as reckless and poorly implemented.
Onovo, who heads policy positions at the Movement for Fundamental Change (MFC), said the initiative has failed to deliver on its promise of providing clean and cheaper fuel.
“The purpose of clean and cheaper fuel has failed due to many reasons, including very poor concept engineering and poor policy development,” he told Daily Independent.
Onovo listed poor management capacity, high conversion costs, limited CNG stations, safety concerns, rising CNG prices, corruption, and inefficiency as factors undermining the policy.
He noted that less than one percent of registered vehicles in Nigeria had been converted to CNG.
On crude oil theft, the energy analyst said volumes have declined in the last three years, attributing the trend to improved efforts by the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies.
“Our Navy has made significant progress in the war against crude oil theft. In the last few years, our Navy has intercepted increasing quantities of stolen crude oil and illegally refined petroleum products,” he said.
He added that the Navy’s “Operation Delta Sanity” has destroyed illegal refining sites, leading to higher official production figures, which currently stand at about 1.8 million barrels of oil per day (BOPD).
Onovo, however, argued that rising revenues have not translated into better living conditions for Nigerians.
“Even with the higher revenues, poverty continues to grow in Nigeria due to the incompetence and corruption of the ad hoc Tinubu regime,” he said.
On environmental concerns, he accused some operators of dumping untreated produced water into the seas in violation of approved disposal standards, alleging regulatory failure by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“This is contrary to its approved produced water treatment and disposal standard, which is by caisson,” he said.
On refineries, Onovo noted that while the Dangote refinery has remained in operation, government-owned Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries are still dormant, with Warri refinery partly operational.
“Almost all the private modular refineries are in operation, but their combined output is less than 35,000 BOPD. So, Dangote refinery remains the source of about 80 percent of refined petroleum products in Nigeria,” he said.
He accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of failing to rehabilitate public refineries despite huge sums allocated for the purpose.
“The outrageously exaggerated sums set aside for the rehabilitation of all the refineries were apparently dissipated in endemic corruption and incompetence. The EFCC is currently investigating the case,” Onovo added.