Workshop on rural use of gas motor fuel

The city of Vladimir hosted yesterday a Workshop on Re-equipment of agricultural and other motor vehicles with gas-fuelled engines. The Workshop took place on the initiative of the RF Agriculture Ministry and the authorities of the Vladimir region. Attending the Meeting were representatives of the leading agricultural companies of the Ryazan and Vladimir regions, Stavropol and other Russian areas; scientists from the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, All-Russian Research Institute for Agriculture Mechanization and other industry institutions as well as representatives of Gazprom’s Administration and its subsidiaries.

Viktor Stativko, Deputy Head of Gazprom’s Gas Transportation, Underground Storage and Utilization Department leaded Gazprom’s delegation. Addressing the audience, V. Stativko underscored that the total number of Russian gas-fuelled industrial, residential and agricultural facilities had so far amounted to some 192 thousand units in towns and cities and over 72 thousand, in rural area, with 10-12 thousand km of gas distribution networks being brought into operation in the village on an annual basis. Thus, natural gas is currently the most commonly accessible type of fuel, allowing companies using gas-driven equipment and motor vehicles to substantially save funds not only due to the difference in the value of gas and light refined products but due to the reduced number of combustible & lubricant storage facilities, as well.

The participants pointed out that using gas motor fuel in the domestic agriculture was a critical factor for improving the economics of the sector. The vast experience of using gas motor fuel in the village shows that re-equipping agricultural vehicles with compressed natural gas-driven engines enables agricultural firms to reduce expenses on light refined products by 50-70%, double the reliability of fuel supplies and diminish pollutant emissions 4-5-fold.

At the end of the Workshop the parties adopted a resolution pointing to the need to step up a range of measures aimed at a more active introduction of gas motor fuel over Russia. These measures include enacting federal and regional laws on alternative fuels as well as launching the batch production of agricultural and other natural gas-driven motor vehicles.

Within the frames of the Workshop, the Voronezhsky Agricultural Production Cooperative Society (Kolchugino district of the Vladimir region) hosted the solemn commissioning of the first Russian automobile gas-fuelling compressor station (AGFCS) located in the rural area. At present, the AGFCS is servicing 53 motor vehicles of the Cooperative Society, re-equipped with compressed natural gas-driven engines, allowing the company to annually save over RUR 8.6 million. The AGFCS construction is planned to be paid off in less than 1.5 years.

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For the time being, 207 AGFCSs are in operation in 163 localities of the 59 RF regions, having a total annual throughput of some 2 bcm. 88% of these AGFCSs are Gazprom-owned. The natural gas price at the AGFCSs is regulated by the RF Government’s Directive N31 dated 15 January 1993 and does not exceed on an average 40% of the A-76 & A-80 gasoline and diesel fuel prices.

Russian natural gas-driven motor vehicles are estimated at some 45 thousand units. Starting 1999, there’s been a rise (by an average of 20% per annum) in sales of methane to Russian drivers, reaching 140 million cubic meters in 2003, including some 130 million cubic meters sold through Gazprom-owned AGFCSs. Russia is planned to sell 160 million cubic meters of gas through AGFCSs this year. At the same time, the Russian network of AGFCSs is currently fuelling over 250 thousand motor vehicles and is making it possible to perform local, inter-urban and international transportation services.

In September 2002, the Commission for Natural and Liquefied Petroleum Gas Use as Motor Fuel ratified in Moscow the Concept of the Russian methane-driven vehicles development. The Document stipulates re-equipment of a million of motor vehicles with methane-fuelled engines, expansion of the AGFCS network to over 1,100 units as well as setting up of a respective infrastructure. As a result, while the replacement of oil motor fuels is expected to amount to 1.5-1.7 million tons per year in 2015, the same parameter will grow to 2.1-2.3 million tons in 2020. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions are planned to decrease over the same period by 750-850 thousand tons and by 1-1.2 million tons, respectively.

DIVISION OF RELATIONS WITH MASS MEDIA