PNOC fields 6 natural gas-powered taxis

Make way for Enviro 2000, a taxi van fueled with liquefied natural gas.

Six of these Malaysian-made vehicles, costing P1.4 million each, will be seen plying Metro Manila’s streets starting today until May 2003.

The deployment of the taxi vans was part of the memorandum of understanding between the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) and Petronas NGV Sdn Bhd to jointly develop and accelerate the utilization of natural gas as an alternative fuel.

"This is the first project of its kind in the Philippines," said PNOC president and CEO Thelmo Cunanan during yesterday’s launching of the Clean Air Month at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

"The field testing of these units is aimed at raising public awareness of alternative fuels and promoting the development of clean fuels like natural gas in order to help mitigate air pollution," he explained.

Cunanan disclosed that the liquefied natural gas will be sourced from the Malampaya Natural Gas project in Palawan and the Compressed Natural Gas Refueling Stations in Echague, Isabela and Mindoro Occidental.

In Malaysia, he said, more than 200 of these taxis are running on natural gas.

Based on the PNOC-Petronas primer, emissions from the Enviro 2000 have 67 percent less carbon monoxide and 42 percent less hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide than Euro 2 limits.

A Petronas research also showed no deterioration in the performance, road worthiness, noise, exhaust emissions, air conditioning system and other components of NGVs after running nearly 120,000 kms. No less than Energy Secretary Vincent Perez has acknowledged the importance of using alternative fuels in order to reduce the country’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

In support to the project, the Department of Energy (DOE) has already converted six service vehicles and three buses for use with natural gas.

Even as the conversion of vehicles for natural gas use is expensive (P60,000 for a passenger bus), Cunanan believes that this may be reduced through time as more motorists seek conversion to natural gas.

At the Clean Air Month celebration at the DENR yesterday, Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez test-drove one of the six units around the DENR compound in Quezon City.

To underscore the importance of alternative fuel in its campaign for clean air, he pledged to launch an alternative fuel facility at the DENR Compound.

This early, the DENR chief said that a memorandum of agreement will be forged with Senbel Fine Chemicals Co. Inc. and Petroline Resources for DENR vehicles’ use of coconut oil-based biodiesel.