Nigeria is moving to close the biggest gap in its compressed-natural-gas push: somewhere to refuel. In November the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund said it would deploy 500 integrated CNG refuelling stations across the country over three years, working with the Chinese manufacturer Endurance Group, the Bank of Industry and Sequor Investment Partners through a new government-backed vehicle.
The special-purpose company, to be known as the Compressed Natural Gas Auto Mobility Infrastructure Company, will build the stations, develop liquefied-CNG supply infrastructure and run a fleet of CNG and LNG trucks fitted with cascades, in effect a virtual pipeline reaching states the fixed network does not. The fund framed leasing equipment to certified operators as the route to a commercially self-sustaining market.
The plan responds to a rollout that has outrun its infrastructure. Under the Presidential CNG Initiative, launched in 2023 after the removal of the petrol subsidy, well over a hundred thousand vehicles have been converted, but operational refuelling stations still number in the dozens rather than the hundreds, leaving long queues at urban outlets. Officials have reaffirmed a target of a million CNG vehicles on the road by 2027.
CNG’s draw is cost: drivers report cutting fuel spending by half or more against petrol, using a fuel Nigeria has in abundance. Closing the refuelling gap is the precondition for that switch to scale beyond the cities.
Why this matters
Why this matters for the gas economy
A national CNG network is, in effect, gas-distribution infrastructure by another name. Mother stations, virtual-pipeline trucking and liquefied-CNG supply build out the midstream that any gas business depends on, and a deeper, more liquid gas market lowers the cost and raises the reliability of gas as a fuel, whether it is burned in an engine or a vehicle.
That matters directly to Nova Utilities. Through Sapio, Nova already supplies CNG and modular gas power to commercial and industrial customers, displacing diesel. A federal build-out of refuelling and trucking infrastructure enlarges the gas ecosystem Nova operates within and reinforces the thesis at its core: that Nigeria’s abundant gas, delivered well, is the practical alternative to costly, dirty diesel.