GNV-News

Brazilian Regulatory Agency is reviewing NGV Safety Inspection Requirements

The construction phase of the Quintero Bay LNG Project is 95% completed, in accordance with news published by a couple of international Press Agencies. Quintero Bay is 155 km northwest of Santiago, in central Chile. It includes a ship terminal, storage tanks and re-gasification units. It is planned to run the fist tests, still in June this year. With this project, Chile will be in better positioned to provide energy to meet their industrial and population needs.

Chile has been facing all kind of limitations in depending of Argentine gas supplying. With this Quintero plant, Chile will start operating with 5 million cubic meters per day, increasing to 10 MMcmd by 2010. It is estimated to have this plant supplying at least 40% of Chilean demand for natural gas. The installation has been built by CB&I, a North American contractor with large experience in this type of job.

Source: Gas Magazine Latinoamerica, May 29, 2005

Revised Regulation on NGVs is published in Venezuela

On May 19th, it has been published a revision of the NGV Regulation in Venezuela, signed by 5 different government ministries. That’s the Resolution # 64 giving guidelines to convert vehicles to natural gas, being expected that, at least 50% of the existing vehicles fleet in the country, will be on natural gas until the end of the year. Local estimates indicates the possibility of converting 50,000 vehicles until the end of 2009. The Resolution is exclusively applied to light vehicles, until technologies will be available in the country, to convert heavy-duty diesel engines to natural gas.

Source: Gas Magazine Latinoamerica, May 29, 2009

Global crises is bringing opportunities for NGVs

The global crises have been also showing interesting opportunities to the utilization of economic and cleaner vehicles. At the same time, General Motors and Chrysler are facing serious problems in the US, and obtaining support from the U.S. Government, they are been stimulated to come up with economical and cleaner vehicle technologies and products.

The world vehicles fleet is estimated as of 1 billion vehicles, and put out in the atmosphere some 3 billion tons of CO2 per year. The last Report from the Global Humanitarian Forum, indicates that climatic changes are already responsible for 300 thousand annual deaths, in the world. And this number may duplicate by 2030, if no action is not immediately taken.

The utilization of more economical and cleaner vehicles for transportation is a must in this scenario and this is highly expected from the US automobile industry, as also as other vehicle manufacturers in the world.

Source: O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, May 31/2009

Petrobrás is offering short-term sales contracts for natural gas

After the first auction in April, on May 12th,,Petrobrás has made their second electronic auction, to sell natural gas to distributors in different regions of Brazil. In the auctions to provide gas deliveries in May and June, sales in the amount of 872,000 cubic meters/day have been closed. However, for the auction with deliveries in July, it was purchased 4,275 million cu.m/day or 59% of the offer made. The average price for July was closed at US$ 4.29/MM Btu, corresponding to 31% reduction on the average existing contract prices. In the case of June and May, the average price reduction was of 34% in June and 37% in May. The gas deliveries as a result of those auctions will not affect the previous existing delivery contracts.

Source: Agencia Petrobrás, May 12/2009

NGV directly offered by original manufactures(OEM) in Colombia

In a recent conference, held in the Hilton Hotel of Cartagena, several OEMs – KIA, Mazda, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Yutong -, have shown their original models, ready to work with natural gas, and with the manufacturer issued warranty contract. This initiative has been taken by Gazel, the biggest natural gas distributor for vehicles, in the region. At least some 10 new vehicle models are expected to be offered to the Colombian market, by those OEMS.

In Colombia, the utilization o natural gas in vehicles, represents a cost reduction of 45% in comparison with the price of gasoline, sold in that country. This reduction is given as an incentive to the benefits obtained from the use of a fuel that provides superior ambient conditions due to the production of reduced emissions.

Source: Gas Magazine Latinoamérica, May 29/2009

GNV - Jornal da Globo

GM shows the new NGV Zafira in Europe

Opel’s new Zafira 1.6  CNG Turbo, da GM, is been presented in Italy, as the world’s most powerful natural gas vehicle. It has an output of 150 hp, and a top speed of 200 km/h, only consuming 8 m3 of natural gas per 100 km, emitting just 144 g/km of CO2.  That means 60% more horsepower for a difference of only 6 grams in emissions comparably to naturally aspirated model.

The new vehicle was designed to work with natural gas or bio methane – obtained from biogas, or a mixture of both.  The model has special pistons, valves and seats, and a separate injection system for natural gas and gasoline. Working with natural gas only, the vehicle has a capacity to make 370 km without refueling, and a spare gasoline tank permits some additional 150 km, to improve flexibility.  

This new Zafira model will be offered in Europe, starting January 2009

 

Toyota shows its natural gas Camry Hybrid conceptual model

Toyota has shown its natural gas Camry Hybrid concept, this week in the Los Angeles Auto Show. Rising fuel costs have made natural gas a much more attractive option for consumers. Another benefit of burning natural gas is cleaner emissions, showing lower CO2 levels than both petrol and diesel. This new Toyota model also comes with the run-flat tires technology, to run without air at speeds up to 75 km/h for distances up to 150 km. Therefore, this permits the installation of the natural gas tanks in the space usually occupied by the spare tire and other tire repair tools, maintaining the trunk volume as in a conventional liquid fuel vehicle.