Everest Amaefule, Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigerian-Chinese consortia towards developing sustainable biofuels in the country.
The Group General Manager, Public Affairs, NNPC, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, said in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday that the MoU was signed at a ceremony held at the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing on the sidelines of the ongoing Forum for China-Africa Cooperation Summit.
He added that two separate Memoranda of Understanding on the biofuel project development were signed between the NNPC and the OBAX-COMPLANT Consortium on one hand, and the corporation and the CAPEGATE-NANNING Consortium on the other hand.
Speaking shortly after signing for Nigeria, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, said the signing of the agreements was aimed at implementing the Federal Government’s mandate on clean, alternative and renewable energy programmes, particularly automotive biofuel production nationwide.
Baru was quoted to have said, “The aspiration for the exploitation of renewable fuel resources in Nigeria is to implement our nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement, part of which requires the blending of 10 per cent by volume of fuel-ethanol in gasoline and 20 per cent by volume of biodiesel in automotive gas oil (diesel) for use in the transportation sector.”
He added that for a country like Nigeria with a daily consumption of over 65 million litres of automotive fuels, it was easy to see that enormous volumes of fuel-ethanol and biodiesel would be needed to meet this obligation.
According to the NNPC boss, meeting and sustaining the target requires strategic investment in more than 10 large biofuel complexes across the country.
Baru, who noted that the execution of the two agreements would help develop the first biofuel production complex in Nigeria, said that before the end of the year, the development of not less than three other complexes would begin in the country.
He stated that the NNPC was poised to domesticate alternative fuel production towards a thriving commercial biofuels industry, which would not only create jobs and rural wealth for the populace, but would also complement international efforts towards curbing global warming.
Baru said as part of the corporation’s expanded programme on providing renewable energy solutions, it also planned to power all its retail outlets by means of solar PV facilities, and develop grid and off-grid solar power as a business and contribution to the clean fuel initiative of the Federal Government.
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