Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said this marks a significant milestone in the development of the natural gas industry in the country.
"With the commercial operation of the compressed natural gas mother station by June 2007 as committed by Ed Chua, Pilipinas Shell country chairman, the government’s Natural Gas Vehicles for Public Transport Pilot Project (NGVPTPP) will now finally take off," Lotilla said.
The construction of Shell’s CNG mother-station was earlier held back due to safety considerations.
Lotilla also acknowledged Shell’s commitment to assist bus operators who imported CNG buses financed through loans in anticipation of the start of the NGVPTPP last year.
He said the promotion and increased utilization of alternative transport fuels such as CNG will help lessen the country’s dependence on imported fuel especially at a time of volatile oil prices.
The transport sector consumes about 56 percent of the country’s total oil requirements.
As a pioneer in the upstream natural gas sector, Shell has been given the sole right to pilot test the setting up of mother-and-daughter CNG refilling stations.
The DOE, however, decided to draw up a set of guidelines that would carry policy declarations on "open access" for CNG-related projects.
Based on the natural gas development program of the government, the DOE will see to it that around 10 CNG refueling stations will be built in two years’ time, or from 2006 to 2007.
Initially, the government will source its natural gas requirement for the transport sector from the Malampaya natural gas project in Palawan.
The DOE has accredited seven bus companies that would initially run about 185 units of CNG buses in the country’s major thoroughfares. These include: HM Transport Inc. (80 units); RRCG Transport (20 units); KL Transport Inc. (40 units); Pascual Liner (20 units); BBL Transport System Inc. (five units); Greenstar Express Inc. and CNG Vehicles Corp. (10 units).
The DOE is targeting a minimum of 2,000 buses to a maximum of 3,000 buses running on CNG in the next 10 years.