A stakeholder analysis of the automotive industry’s use of compressed natural gas in Nigeria

Nigeria experiences a perennial shortage of transportation energy despite being the world’s eighth largest producer of crude oil and the seventh largest proven reservoir of natural gas. Partly as a result, the Nigerian government proposed the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an automotive fuel in 1997 as part of the efforts to harness the country’s natural gas resources and address transportation energy challenges. However, the rate of adoption has been very low with natural gas vehicles constituting 0.04% of the national vehicle fleet. This paper presents a stakeholder analysis derived from interviews with senior executives of the leading organisations involved in the energy and transportation sectors in Nigeria. Analysis revealed thirty-one barriers and twenty-six policy proposals that were categorised into eight and four themes respectively. While there is a rarity of agreement across all stakeholder groups, we observed consensus on the suggestion for the removal of the subsidy on petrol and the need for the establishment of a coordinating agency to drive the use of CNG. The paper offers specific recommendations for the reform of the energy and transportation sectors, the introduction of fiscal and operational incentives and the creation of public awareness

Understanding the critical success factors for delivery of megaprojects in Colombia

By their very nature, megaprojects have significant short- and longer-term impacts on the socio-economic, technical, environmental and political landscape of the host country, but many are delivered with time and cost overruns and sometimes with quality discrepancies. This paper examines the critical success factors for megaprojects in Colombia – from the project definition stage to successful handover – from the perspective of professionals involved in the delivery of megaprojects in that country. It applies a mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis to rank 34 factors identified in literature sources as being critical to the success of megaprojects. Analysis shows that inadequate information at the tender stage, design changes during the construction phase, and limited availability and supply of materials have had a major negative influence on the delivery of megaprojects in Colombia. In contrast, adverse weather conditions and lack of prior experience with similar projects have had the least impact. This paper recommends approaches to mitigate the risks associated with the factors investigated

Developing compressed natural gas as an automotive fuel in Nigeria: lessons from international markets

The Nigerian government proposed the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an automotive fuel in 1997 as part of the initiatives to harness natural gas (NG) resources but progress has been slow. This paper examines the natural gas vehicle (NGV) implementation approaches and outcomes in seven countries with diverse experiences in order to gain an understanding of the barriers to the NGV market development in Nigeria. The analysis employs hermeneutic principles to secondary data derived from academic literature, published reports from a variety of international agencies, grey literature, and text from online sources and identifies eight success factors for NGV market development namely: strategic intent, legal backing, learning and adaptation, assignment of responsibilities, financial incentives, NG pricing, consumer confidence, and NG infrastructure. The paper concludes that the principal impediment to NGV market development in Nigeria is the uncoordinated implementation approach and that greater government involvement is required in setting strategic goals, developing the legal and regulatory fra- meworks, setting of clear standards for vehicles and refuelling stations as well as assigning responsi- bilities to specific agencies. Short-term low cost policy interventions identified include widening the existing NG and gasoline price gap and offering limited support for refuelling and retrofitting facilities