Christopher Tan, Straits Times 12 Jan 08;
A BREAKDOWN at Singapore's solitary compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling station is causing drivers of the 420 or so 'green' bi-fuel vehicles here to see red.
Such vehicles run on both CNG and petrol.
The glitch occurred on New Year's Eve, when a compressor at the SembCorp Gas-owned Jurong Island station failed. One of the station's two pumps became inoperable. As for the remaining pump, it has to pause for up to 15 minutes after filling three to five vehicles.
Mr Ang Kwang Wee, who drives a bi-fuel Toyota Picnic, said that since the breakdown nearly two weeks ago, drivers typically have to queue at least one hour to fill up.
The 46-year-old project manager, who works on Jurong Island, said: 'I pity the taxi-drivers who come from all over and have to wait up to two hours.'
Product manager Lim Sim Leng, 45, who drives a bi-fuel Mercedes Vito, said: 'I'm upset, since that's the only station around. I'm running on petrol now.''
SembCorp Gas director Francis Gomez told The Straits Times that repairs will be carried out this weekend, and that it took time because spare parts had just arrived.
'The pumps will be back to normal by this Sunday, or Monday at the latest,' Mr Gomez said. He said the failure was 'one in a thousand, or even one in a million', which was why the company did not keep spares.
Meanwhile, SembCorp Gas will open a new CNG refuelling kiosk at Singapore Petroleum Company's Jalan Buroh station later this month. Smart Taxis will open another in Mandai next month.
Mr Gilbert von der Aue, sales manager at C. Melchers, a German firm that is converting petrol cars to run also on gas, said: 'The fact that the Jurong Island station has operated for five years without breaking down is a good thing.'
