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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY buses plying Metro Manila
roads may finally become a reality after Pilipinas Shell Petroleum
Corp. completed the construction of its main compressed natural gas
(CNG) refilling station.
Ed Chua, Shell country chairman, said the
facility is now fully operational, with commercial operations set to
start soon with just a few minor kinks to be ironed out.
”We are ready as of September 30. We’re just
waiting for a convenient date for the President and the (Energy)
Secretary because they want to be there [for the launch],” he
said.
Shell’s CNG mother station, located near
its refinery in Batangas, will be used to support the government’s
Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT), which
aims to have at least 200 natural gas-fed buses running in Metro
Manila.
The mother station will source its natural gas
supply from the Malampaya field, which is also being run by the oil
company through Shell Philippines Exploration (SPEX).
Chua said that the facility is already
“technically” complete and has been tested already.
He noted though that some of the buses that will
be used for the pioneering project have yet to receive the necessary
permits to operate.
A number of bus operators had already imported
CNG buses financed through state-subsidized loans in anticipation of
the NGVPTPP last year.
However, the construction of the CNG mother
station in Tabangao town, originally scheduled for June last year,
was held back because of safety considerations.
With the completion of the facility, CNG
refilling outlets, where vehicles that can run on the clean
alternative fuel can fill up, are expected to open soon.
The government is banking on the use of
alternative fuels to cut the country’s dependence on costly and
highly-polluting imported fuel.
The CNG from Shell’s project is expected to be
sold at P14.52 per diesel liter equivalent, based on initial
projections.
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