Petronas turns over 6 nat-gas vehicles to PNOC

Malaysian oil giant Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has turned over six natural gas vehicles to Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) as part of an agreement to promote the use of alternative fuels in the transport sector.

"This is for the company to promote the use of natural gas as an alternative and viable fuel for the local transport sector," PNOC president Eduardo V. Manalac said.

The turnover ceremony was led by Petronas president Tan Sri Marican and Mañalac, PNOC senior vice president Pedro Aquino and PNOC manager for energy research Rene Bala.

With the main goal of intensifying the development of natural gas vehicles (NGVs), PNOC has collaborated a few years back with Petronas on the implementation of joint project on NGV development.

As part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between PNOC and Petronas, six units of Enviro 2000 were transported from Malaysia to the Philippines in June 2002.

Enviro 2000 is characterized as environment-friendly, energy efficient and economical NGVs.

In a related development, President Arroyo recently welcomed the arrival of the first batch of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.

The CNG price for the first 200 buses under the government’s Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT) is at P14.52 per diesel liter equivalent compared to the prevailing average diesel price of P29.50/liter.

She said the promotion and increased utilization of alternative transport fuels, one of the major pillar of the government’s five-point energy independence program, will consequently lessen the country’s dependence on imported fuel especially at a time of surging oil prices. The transport sector consumes about 53 percent of the country’s total imported oil requirements.

The first 200 CNG buses will ply the Laguna/Batangas-Manila and vice-versa routes.

The Chief Executive has instructed the Department of Energy (DOE) (to commence negotiation with the Malampaya natural gas consortium for the CNG price to allow for widespread utilization of CNG-powered buses this time in Metro Manila and other nearby Luzon provinces.

The DOE has already accredited seven bus operators which committed to acquire 185 CNG buses by the end of the year. These are HM Transport Inc., 80 units; RRCG Transport System Inc., 20 units; KL CNG Bus Transport Corp., 40 units; Pascual Liner Inc., 20 units; Greenstar Express, 10 units; Biñan Bus Line, five units; and CNG Vehicles Corp., 10 units.

The DOE added that the NGVPPT program has attracted the private sector with six more applications pending for accreditation.

The NGVPPT program gives a package of incentives to participants which includes income tax holiday for pioneering projects qualifying under the government’s Investment Priorities Plan; zero rate of duty on imported NGV industry related equipment, facilities, parts and components; preferential and exclusive franchises for NGVs on newly-opened routes; accelerated issuance of environment compliance certificate (ECC) for NGV facilities and refueling stations; affordable and commercially tenable financial packages from government financial institutions, among others.