My Comment: The Star News On NGV Station March 19, 2006.

I was on the way to Genting Permai to view an Apartment that a seller have been pushing me to buy. Took my wife and on on the way bought The Star Newspaper.

On page 19 Nation Sunday Star I saw this news:

QUOTE:

SET UP MORE LNG STATIONS

By DERRICK VINESH

NIBONG TEBAL: Petronas has been directed to open 200 new natural gas stations by 2010 to encourage the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel.

Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman said the Cabinet had recently given the order to promote the use of natural gas vehicles (NGV) to reduce dependency on petrol and diesel.

“Petronas has 53 petrol stations selling natural gas. By providing an alternative fuel to consumers, we hope they will not get angry with the government when there is any increase in the prices of petrol and diesel.

“The government has also asked Proton to come up with new car models that use natural gas to complement this effort,” he said at a fuel price increase explanation event at Institut Latihan Perindustrian Arumugam Pillai here yesterday.

Zainal, who is also Nibong Tebal MP, said the government also gave out incentives to encourage the use of natural gas.

Owners of mono gas vehicles get 50% reduction in road tax for and those with bi-fuel and dual-gasoline vehicles get 25% reduction.

“The government has also fixed the price of natural gas at 50% lower than the price of petrol,” he said.

On a different matter, Zainal said he was upset that 308 rural businessmen had defaulted on payment of their Rural Economy and Loan Scheme since its inception in 2001.

“We gave out loans to 704 rural businessmen totalling RM90mil. Until now, 308 businessmen have yet to pay up.”

UNQUOTE:

My first reaction are:

a) At last there is some good news that the cabinet (Malaysian Goverment) have directed our National Oil Company, PETRONAS, to open 200 new NGV stations by year 2010. Something is better then nothing.

c) What ammused me is the head line : SET UP MORE LNG STATIONS. The writer do not know the different between LNG and NGV. I suggest that he read my latest blog about LNG utilisation in Sarawak. LNG is liquid Natural Gas while NGV is compressed gas used for vehicle. Though both come from the same source i.e Natural gas, LNG uses cooling to liquify the gas while NGV refer to Natural gas in Compressed mode.

d)The Minister seem to be very happy with the number of stations to be built but he is not making enought effort to get more people to convert to NGV. Reducing the road tax to 50% (mono) and 25%(dual) is not good enought. More should be done.

e) The next incentive given is the assurance that NGV will be 50% below petrol price. This can be very assuring and hope it will be there forever.

f) Seriuosly I believed the Goverment should show more commitment in making NGV as the altimate alternative fuel for all consumers. They should anounce the formation of a special Department in the Prime Minister Department to come out with a Masterplan which will see that NGV will be the most important gift to all Malaysian.

g) The Government should also call upon all Petrol & Diesel stations operators to allocate an island for NGV dispensers. This can be done by giving them the ruling whereby if they failed to comply their lisence will not be renewed. It this is implemented we will have more stations with NGV and not Petronas Stations only.

h) The Gorvernment should also make serious effort in issueing more lisence to new operators who have the plan to operate dedicated NGV stations. This will encourange more competitors in the market thus giving the consumers more choices to be served.

We are very proud and happy with this new announcement but there is a lot more that can be done.

We prefer a proper implementation plan then piece meal announcement just to make the public happy. We want a masterplan that are designed for a long term strategy to make NGV as the Alternative Fuel.