Nigeria
Nigeria continues to make progress to maximize its 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves with the launch of the National Gas Expansion Program in 2020. Aimed at deploying compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles and related charging infrastructure, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the official commencement of the project in March 2022.
Shortly thereafter, Nigeria signed an agreement with Iran that would see the countries cooperate in the area of gas utilization as a vehicular fuel. The agreement launched a seven-year program which would see Iranian firms construct 1,000 CNG service stations and 70 conversion centers, targeting over one million vehicles. The metropolis of Lagos also launched a fleet of CNG-powered buses as part of the federal government’s target of increasing the utilization of gas in the transport industry.
Egypt
Egypt is accelerating the penetration of gas across the transportation industry with the country launching several programs aimed at maximizing the use of locally sourced gas resources as an alternative fuel option while reducing the dependency on expensive energy imports.
In 2022 alone, the country put in place a target to double CNG stations to 1,000 by the end of the year. Additionally, some 350 diesel buses were converted to run on gas, with larger targets put in place to convert 2,200 buses over a five-year period as well as some 3.5 million three-wheeled motorcycles. The country has also embarked on a large-scale gas charging infrastructure build up campaign with the number of chargers approximately doubled to reach 800 in 2022 alone. Global energy major TotalEnergies – one of Egypt’s largest fuel retailers – has 12 natural gas stations across the country to date.
Meanwhile, in March 2023, the Egyptian International Company for Gas Technology (GasTech), in partnership with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, launched the country’s first mobile center to convert conventional cars to run on natural gas. The center has a conversion capacity of 20 vehicles per day.
Equatorial Guinea
In an effort to increase the impact of its Gas Mega Hub – an initiative aimed at maximizing both Equatorial Guinea’s 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves as well as stranded reserves in regional offshore basins – Equatorial Guinea is making strides towards accelerating the utilization of gas across the transportation sector. In 2022, the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons kickstarted a program with Egyptian energy firm TAQA Arabia for the provision of CNG-powered vehicles and charging infrastructure in Equatorial Guinea.
