I have written about the high price of oil in previous articles for NGV Global.  Back in Sept 2005, the article discussed oil at $65 per barrel.  Then in Oct 2007, it was $80 per barrel.  John Lyon (IANGV Immediate Past President), spoke about oil at $100 per barrel during the ANGVA conference in Thailand last year. What a great change has now occurred – oil is now $140+ per barrel. From various commentaries and pronouncements, it seems certain that the consequences of oil at this level will be quite severe in economic and human terms.  What is certain however is that people all over the world will be taking steps to reduce the impact of the high oil prices on their lives.  This is the opportunity for the NGV industry to step up its marketing and promotion and to make sure that people, businesses and governments are fully aware of the opportunities that NGVs offer to help mitigate the effect of high oil prices.  However, we must not lose sight of the need for the industry to be developed with a high emphasis on quality and safety in order that consumers are both satisfied and protected.

Natural gas and biomethane have the ability to fuel our vehicles well into the future.  There are at present 8 million vehicles on the road fuelled by natural gas and the number is projected to rise to more than 60 million by 2020, approximately 7% of the existing world vehicle fleet.  We now have a large and sophisticated industry supporting the refueling infrastructure and the natural gas vehicles.

There are two key groups that can be termed the gatekeepers for the NGV industry.  Firstly there is the Government and its agencies and secondly the gas industry.  As far as I am aware, there is no successful, substantial NGV program that does not have Government support, either through funding programs, preferential fuel excises or other measures that acknowledge the environmental and energy security benefit so of natural gas vehicles.  Secondly, the NGV industry needs gas industry support to establish the refueling infrastructure.  This would appear to be a logical issue for the gas industry as it involves more sales of gas through an existing gas network.

Last year, IANGV in partnership with International Gas Union and Marcogaz prepared a message for governments.  This message LINK contains the following key points in regard to national benefits:

Use of natural gas in the transport sector will:

• Reduce national oil demand and oil dependency
• Improve national balance of payments by the reduction in the need for imported oil.
• Improve energy choice flexibility.
• Improve national security of energy supply. (Many countries have little indigenous oil but substantial gas deposits.)
• Improve world economic stability (dampen oil price).
• Create new jobs in the NGV and related industries
• Make use of renewable energy (bio-methane). (Many countries such as Sweden use biomethane in transport applications.)
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (An NGV has 20% - 30% less CO2 emissions)
• Reduce harmful vehicle emissions which cause local air pollution. (NGVs can have extremely low emissions of NOX, CO and particulates eg the Honda Civic GX).

Thus, now is the time for us in the NGV industry to actively promote our product to both Governments and the gas industry, along with our experience, our achievements and our commitment to a successful lower cost alternative transport fuel.