At a high level meeting which took place at the Gazprom headquarters, leading personnel of the Russian ministries of Energy and Agriculture, Gazprom, Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo, KAMAZ and KAMAZ’s distributor of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) – OOO RariTEK, discussed the coordinated expansion of regional NGV markets.
In particular, Sergey Kogogin, General Director of KAMAZ, updated the gathering on his company’s NGV model range, the potential for gas engines and KAMAZ’s commitment to the large-scale introduction of gas-engine KAMAZ vehicles. KAMAZ already has a widespread maintenance centre distribution and is well positioned to service customers of NGVs with minimal capital investments, he said.
According to Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors – Director General of Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo, the success of Gazprom’s efforts to expand the NGV fuel market in Russia will largely depends on the work being done by regional authorities, in the first place, to convert public motor transport to natural gas as well as to adopt regional laws promoting NGV equipment purchase and use and, in particular, stipulating temporary abatement or nullification of the transport tax rate for gas-powered vehicles. “Assistance in land allocation for the construction sites of future stations is also greatly important,” Viktor Zubkov noted.
The meeting heard that it may be economically more effective to purchase new vehicles with installed gas equipment than to reequip old ones, with faster pay-back times because of the low cost of gas fuel.
The participants were instructed at the end of the meeting to work out the relevant regional programs for the NGV market development, including the synchronization of work done by regional authorities to convert vehicles to natural gas and the construction and implementation of NGV infrastructure by Gazprom.
The Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo Board of Directors has approved a 2013-2014 natural gas vehicle expansion program worth RUB 13.8 billion. According to Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors – Director General of Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo, the funds will go toward the construction and upgrading of over 300 NGV facilities in 31 Russian territories. In the first place, it concerns CNG filling stations as well as motor vehicle conversion shops and maintenance centers. The document provides for purchasing 26 mobile gas filling trucks. In addition, the Investment Program accounts for the funds to be allotted to building and upgrading CNG filling stations as part of the 2013 Russian Regions Gasification Program.
(Source: KAMAZ)
