Mtwara. Hiyari village in Mtwara Region has today launched a compressed natural gas (CNG) pumping station.
The station has been built within Dangote Cement factory premises and will have capacity to service 250 vehicles.
This is the second CNG pumping station to be build specifically to serve vehicles owned by Dangote Cement factory.
The company owns more than 2,000 vehicles, most of which are lorries used to ferry cement from the factory to various regions, the lories have started using CNG as running fuel.
Tanzania has discovered more than 57.54 trillion cubic feet of gas, most of which is currently used to generate electricity. Some of the gas has been connected to households and some is used as car fuel.
Launching the Sh21 billion facility, the Minister for Energy, Dr Medard Kalemani urge car owners in the country to change their vehicle’s fuel systems as the government is planning to construct five more such stations across the country.
He said apart from being cheap, natural gas was environment friendly.
He noted that a unit of natural gas is sold at around Sh 1,000 while fuel is sold at nearly twice that amount.
“We have discovered a lot of natural gas, about 57.54 trillion cubic feet and we have utilized only one feet of it. Let me appeal to investors to come and invest in this area. Natural gas is cheap. Currently around 60 per cent of electricity in the country is generated from natural gas and its production cost is reasonable compared to other sources of fuel, “said Dr Kalemani
For his part,Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) Executive Director, Dr James Mataragio, Said Dangote cement factory was their second major customer of natural gas.
The company uses natural gas to run its machines and production of electricity for other uses.
The factory has also state using gas for its cement transporting lorries.
“Dangote has started to rely on natural gas because it recognizes it si cheap to use natural gas compared to other sources of energy,” he said
Source : The Citzen