The Oil Ministry is expanding infrastructure to increase use of compressed natural gas in vehicles, a deputy director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said Sunday.
“The ministry and the NIORDC want to reach daily distribution of 30 million cubic meters of CNG,” Hamid Qassemi was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news agency Shana. An estimated 10 mcm of CNG is sold daily to filling stations in the country.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has supported the initiative to convert gasoline-powered vehicles to CNG hybrids. In the past almost 2.3 million vehicles have been converted.
“As per a decision by the government’s Economic Council, about 1.5 million cars will be turned into CNG hybrids, which include 100% for the public transport sector (buses, taxis and vans) plus trucks and pickups,” Qassemi added.
Referring to other expansion programs, he said the company has plans to set up small CNG filling stations that cost less. “High land prices are a big challenge” especially in the metropolises.
As is the case with gasoline stations, private investors over the past several years have shown little to no interest in entering this business because of high and rising real estate prices and low profit margins.
Of the 19 million vehicles in Iran, five million plus have hybrid CNG engines and the share of CNG in total fuel consumption is 20%
This is the primary reason no gas station has been built in Tehran and other major cities despite the fact that the number of cars has grown exponentially clogging the streets and forcing motorists to waste precious time to fill up.
In small-scale CNG stations, there will be no storage tank, which will reduce the size of land to about one-fifteenth, the official said.
New filling stations will require only 100 square meters of land and can be built near bus and taxi terminals, public parking lots, chain stores, etc., which are easier for people to reach, he said, without providing details.
Compressed natural gas is a fuel that can be replace gasoline, diesel fuel and liquefied petroleum gas.
It is a much cleaner fuel because its combustion produces less toxic gas compared to the other dirty fuels. It also is cheaper.
Iran is fifth in global CNG consumption with over 2,500 CNG stations. Boosting CNG share in the energy mix can have multiple advantages, especially cutting medical and healthcare bills due to the worsening air pollution and reducing demand for dirty fossil fuels that poison the air and impose prohibitive health costs on families and the treasury.
One cubic meter of CNG is sold for 4,600 rials (2.8 cents), three times cheaper than gasoline. A liter of subsidized gasoline at the pump costs 15,000 rials (9.3 cents) and non-subsidized fuel 30,000 rials (19 cents).
Of the 19 million vehicles in Iran, five million plus have hybrid CNG engines and the share of CNG in total fuel consumption is 20%.
More than $2.4 billion was invested in the last decade to expand CNG use and contribute to the global effort to reduce Iran’s CO2 footprint and move to eco-friendly fuels.
