LNG Filling Stations to Play a Critical Role in the Adoption of LNG as a Fuel in Africa

Thank you Matt!  This is an important question.

A number of countries in Africa suffer from some form of energy scarcity, while the demand for affordable energy keeps growing due a rapidly growing population.

Gas flaring in Africa has been described as not only wasteful, but also inimical to the environment. The push for LNG to monetise gas that is often flared, can help erase the harmful effects of gas flaring while giving many Africans access to affordable energy and fuel for transport. 

As it stands Nigeria has the potential to generate 12,522 megawatts (MW) of electric power from existing plants, but most days is only able to generate around 4,000MW to 5,000 MW which is insufficient.  Some reports say Nigeria needs approximately 180,000MW to  ensure steady power supply. 

The cost of transportation has been said to be a major driver of inflation. For an economy heavily dependent on the transport sector and whose citizens sometimes spend a sizable portion of their income on the cost of transportation, access to cheaper fuel can mean lower transport costs and make a big difference in the cost and quality of living. 

Advantages of LNG as a fuel include the following:

+ Natural gas when frozen turns into LNG and reduces in size, to 1/600 of its original volume, giving clear commercial advantage in terms of ease of transportation and use.

+ LNG is versatile. LNG  is natural gas in a frozen state, you can can receive LNG from a port at point A, transport it to point B. At point B you can  regasify the LNG into natural gas before compressing it into CNG for delivery to the end user. At point C, the end user can liquefy the natural gas into LNG for ease of storage.

+LNG is very cold, giving the advantage of cold energy applications.

+ LNG as a transport fuel will be relatively cheaper, and may at first glance help quite a few African countries pivot away from more expensive imported refined petroleum products.  

+ Stable price compared to imported fuel
+ Lower risk, it is lighter than air
+ In case of leakage, it disperses quickly 
+ Lower CO2 emissions
+ Better combustion for its level of purity
+ Cryogenic tanks store LNG at low pressure
+ Stable and homogeneous quality and composition