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THE number of vehicles running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
across the country has doubled from last year, the Department of
Energy said.
Mario C. Marasigan, energy department director,
said that more than 8,000 vehicles have already been converted for
LPG or autogas use at the beginning of this year from about 4,000 a
year ago.
The government is promoting the use of autogas,
among other alternative fuels, to lessen the country’s reliance on
expensive oil imports.
LPG, which is commonly used as cooking gas, is a
relatively cheaper and cleaner alternative to gasoline. The price of
autogas per liter costs roughly a third less than gasoline.
All gasoline-fed vehicles and four-stroke
motorcycle engines can be converted for autogas use. Conversion cost
runs to about P30,000 depending on the vehicle’s model. Once
converted, these vehicles can run either on gasoline or LPG.
Marasigan said earlier that the number of
autogas units is projected to increase by about 12,000 units in two
years but the growth is expected to come mostly from taxi fleets.
But despite the growing number of vehicles
running on autogas, industry officials said that the market is not
growing fast enough to support its refilling business.
In a separate interview, Emmanuel A. Atienza,
AutoLPG Co. Inc. executive vice-president, said that a number of
retail stations are already considering closing shop because of low
profit margins.
“There are a lot of refilling stations but the
market is not growing fast enough,” he added.
He said that this may be because public
awareness on the benefits of using autogas has yet to catch up.
Data from the energy department showed that as
of October 2007 the total number of autogas refilling stations stood
at 86. Of the total, 56 are located in Luzon, 21 in Visayas and 9 in
Mindanao. Garage stations for taxi operations numbered 66.
Besides these, there are also 10 to 15 pending
applications for the construction of new autogas refilling stations
in Metro Manila.
Despite this, AutoLPG Co. will push through with
its plan to import 200 LPG buses from China by next month at a cost
of about P500 million, Atienza said.
He said that autogas remains a viable
alternative fuel in light of the soaring price of oil in the world
market, which he said may jack up local gasoline prices to as much
as P50 per liter this year.
The company will initially bring in four buses
for test runs, and will subsequently increase this number.
Atienza added that AutoLPG Co., which runs eight
autogas retail stations in Metro Manila, will add two more stations
to accommodate the buses’ refilling needs.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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