Bangkok--June 4-- PTT
Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT), Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), through its subsidiary PETRONAS NGV Sdn Bhd (PNGV) by Mr.Muri Muhammad, Chairman of PNGV and PTT by Mr.Prasert Bunsumpun, President of PTT Gas signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between PTT and PNGV for the collaboration in NGV development in Thailand.
Under the MoU, PNGV and PTT will jointly conduct five Enviro 2000,natural gas powered vehicles, Field Demonstration on Bangkok roads for six months as a public transportation vehicles as well as for other official uses free of charges. The exhaust emission by these NGV vehicles is well below EURO II limits on carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide and can travel up to 450 km per filling of NGV rendering its performance equivalent to a petrol vehicle. More importantly, these NGV vehicles can generate a significant saving on fuel expense. In addition, two parties will undertake a joint feasibility study on the development of other related natural gas for vehicle (NGV) businesses in Thailand
Last year, PTT commenced a pilot project to promote the use of natural gas for taxi in Thailand. Under the project, 100 units of taxi were successfully converted by PTT to run on bi-fuel system which operates on either natural gas or gasoline. Each vehicle can save an expense of 200-300 Baht/day as NGV is 7.09 Baht/litre gasoline equivalent (while gasoline is 16.79 Baht/litre). October 2001, will see the contractors awarded by PTT commence converting another 500 units to bi-fuel system and a further 500 units will be completed by mid 2002. These vehicles will be served by 8 new NGV refueling stations which will be completed by that time. The conversion program requires a budget of 40 million Baht. Furthermore, PTT is planning to have 30 NGV refuelling stations by the year 2005, with a total investment of 1.4 billion baht.
PETRONAS introduced the NGV programme in Malaysia in 1986, in the pursuit for a cleaner and healthier environment. At present, there are about 4,000 NGV vehicles on the road served by 21 NGV refuelling outlets. The Enviro 2000 vehicles have been used as taxis on the streets of Kuala Lumpur since 1998. End.
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