Chile and Venezuela now represented
The Executive Council of the Latin American NGV Association has expanded to include representatives from Chile and Venezuala, joining current representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Gerardo Muñoz, Metrogas (Chile) Deputy Manager of NGVs, and Pedro Mellado, General Director of GASMOVIL91 and President of the Venezuelan NGV Association, have both joined the Executive, which now has representation from all active South American NGV markets. The new representatives have extensive experience and knowledge of the NGV industry, with strong participation in all aspects of their development and progress since programs commenced in the region. Both Chile and Venezuala had strong NGV programs in the past which halted or declined as a result of natural gas supply interruptions and policy changes respectively. 2009 will see programs reinvigorated in both countries.
In Chile, natural gas is available for vehicles in the south of the country, in Punta Arenas and Concepcion. In the initial phase, Chile developed an NGV fleet of 8500 vehicles and 14 fueling stations. The NGV program is planned to be reinitiated in September 2009, when liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are expected to come online, improving natural gas availability.
In the case of Venezuela, an initial NGV program resulted in the conversion of 50,000 vehicles before being interrupted due to the lack of Government incentives. Today, it is estimated there are still some 10% of that fleet still operating with natural gas and 140 fueling stations ready prepared to re-start supplying natural gas at any time. The new Autogas program is managed by PDVSA, the state-owned oil and gas company. Today, there are 72 conversion shops capable of converting vehicles to natural gas.
In 2009, a new law requires that all local automakers or automobile importers, will commercialize at least 30% of their production, or importation, as NGVs to the Venezuelan market. It is estimated this will represent some 90,000 to 100,000 new NGVs. In the same year it is expected the existing and new conversion shops will provide 100,000 other NGVs, from Government or taxi fleets.
The Latin American continent, has 3.6 million natural gas vehicles.
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