The construction of Gazprom’s first cryogenic filling station on the new Moscow – St. Petersburg highway (M11) was marked by a ceremony near Okulovka, Novgorod Region, which coincided with the arrival of vehicles participating in the world’s longest rally for NGVs, ‘Gas to Motors’.
The cryogenic filling station will be used primarily for fueling heavy-duty trucks with LNG. It will be located at the premises of the Valdai mixed-use highway service area. Gazprom is constructing NGV refueling infrastructure along the M-11 highway (part of the North – South and Europe – China international transit routes) as part of the cooperation with Russian Highways State Company (Avtodor). A total of six cryogenic filling stations will be built there.
“The conversion of trucks to natural gas will help improve the environmental situation in transit cities and towns and cut down shipping costs due to fuel savings. Creating state-of-the-art gas filling facilities on the Russian part of the Europe – China transit route is a crucial task that Gazprom is focused on today,” said Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee.
Highway vehicles will be the key consumer of LNG on the M-11 highway. The projected highway traffic will be about 5,000 trucks a day, with some of them to be powered by LNG. According to expert estimates, the use of LNG instead of diesel fuel helps reduce fuel costs by 30–50 per cent. In Russia, the cost of LNG and diesel fuel for trucks per one kilometer of covered distance is RUB 8.9 and RUB 17.8 (USD 0.13 and USD 0.27), respectively.
The Europe – China international transit route is an ambitious integrated investment project spanning Russia, Kazakhstan, and China. It will be more than 8,000 kilometers long.
Efforts to create natural gas filling infrastructure along the Europe – China route are being taken as part of the cooperation between Gazprom, CNPC, and KazMunayGas.
Related articles: China and Russia Discuss Pan-Eurasia LNG Road Fuel Network
