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Published on September 17, 2007

NGV demand is now running only 11 million cubic feet per day (cf/d), but is expected to reach 23 million cf/d by the end of this year, still considerably off the target.

"This will be, therefore, a great challenge to PTT over the next four years," Nuttachat Charuchinda, executive vice president for NGV, said last week.

PTT has already spent Bt7 billion to Bt8 billion, mostly in expanding its petrol station network. However, there is still a limit as demand for NGV is not yet significant.

NGV consumption by buses is not as much as it could be because the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority is not ready to convert the diesel engines of its fleet to NGV engines.

"There are now only two stations that provide NGV for buses, far short of the 18 stations planned," Nuttachat said.

NGV promotion for trains has been found to be not worth the investment, while encouraging ships to switch to NGV, though worth the investment, is still in the initial stage.

But the campaign for taxis is working, he said. About 14,000 taxis out of the total of 70,000 have been installed with NGV engines.

PTT subsidises Bt40,000 a taxi to change over from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to NGV.

"In short, promoting NGV consumption in the transport sector is still difficult as a result of low demand for NGV and the high cost of modifying engines," he said, adding that most of the equipment would have to be imported.

Producing NGV tanks here would help reduce the installation cost of NGV engines, but demand for the tanks needs to reach 120,000-150,000 units a year to make it viable. Current demand for NGV tanks is about 100,000 a year.

However, demand for NGV could shoot up to 35 million to 40 million cf/d if the government decides to float LPG prices, he added. LPG prices have long been subsidised to keep cooking costs low.

Watcharapong Thongrung

 The Nation