World's largest CNG refuelling station opens in Singapore

Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 9 Sep 09;

SINGAPORE: The world's largest CNG refuelling station - spanning over 7,000 square metres - has opened in Singapore.

The S$16m C-Energy station, owned by the Union Energy Group, officially opened its facility at Old Toh Tuck Road on Wednesday.

The C-Energy, the fifth CNG station in Singapore, has 44 pump hoses for cars and two for buses. This should address the problem of insufficient refuelling stations that users of green vehicles have complained about.

C-Energy is the brainchild of Teo Kiang Ang, who also runs TransCab, Singapore's second largest taxi company after Comfort Delgro.

Mr Teo plans to open three more CNG stations - in Bedok-Changi area, Woodlands and Toa Payoh - within the next three years at an estimated cost of about S$6 million each, excluding land cost.

He said: "Our projections show the need for another three to four stations to help make this industry successful. Without the additional stations in the east, south, west and north, without enough filling stations, it is hard for the CNG business to succeed. But if we are able to support it, we are assured of success."

Builders said another issue is land availability.

Alexander Melchers, general manager of C Melchers GMBH, said: "We hear from the operators that the acquisition of land and the pricing of land is an issue. There's an opportunity for companies to have their own stations if they have access to the pipeline.

"But very importantly, is that we have public stations, so that heartlanders can convert their cars and heartlanders can save money."

Currently, there are some 4,200 CNG vehicles out of over 700,000 vehicles in Singapore. About one third of the CNG vehicles are taxis.

Still, users are hampered by a Catch-22 situation. Drivers are reluctant to switch to CNG despite the green tax rebate, because they say there are simply not enough CNG refuelling stations.

On the other hand, CNG refuellers say they are reluctant to spend millions to build CNG stations because there are simply not enough CNG vehicles.

But as fuel prices increase and CNG, which can halve a driver's fuel cost, becomes more easily available, Mr Teo expects more to switch to CNG vehicles. And he plans to grow his current 3,000 taxi fleet to a fully-CNG one of 8,000 within five years.

In fact, Mr Teo predicted that by then, half of Singapore's entire taxi fleet will be CNG cabs. And going by the positive reactions of customers, he may well be on the right track.

"Elsewhere, the queues are long, some equipment are not working, waste a lot of time!" said one customer.

"A lot of us started buying CNG vehicles, but ended up using petrol most of the time. Now, people in our area have started going back to CNG and enjoying the savings from it," said another.

Another plus point - the new CNG station runs 24 hours a day.

- CNA/ir

More CNG taxis out on the road now
Number of such cabs up by 64% but only 8% rise for CNG passenger cars
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 10 Sep 09;

EVEN as the number of gas-powered taxis in Singapore is on the up, the number of motorists switching to such vehicles has slowed to a crawl in the last year.

Figures from the Land Transport Authority put the number of compressed natural gas (CNG) taxis here at about 1,600 now, a 64 per cent leap from the end of last year.

The number of CNG passenger cars, however, grew only 8.4 per cent over the same period to 2,650.

Taxi operator Trans-Cab, which runs about a third of its 3,000-strong fleet on gas, accounts for more than half the gas cabs here. It expects the CNG taxi population to spike in the next five years.

Its managing director Teo Kiang Ang, who now also runs the world's largest CNG refuelling station in Old Toh Tuck Road, said he aims to run at least 3,000 more gas cabs in the next 11/2 years.

'There are no more teething problems with CNG cabs, and cabbies are finding that they can really save more money by using gas,' he said.

One teething problem was the lack of refuelling stations, as well as the number of pumps at each station.

The official opening of his 46-pump refuelling station yesterday is expected to help.

And it will get better. Mr Teo said he will build three more stations in three years - one each in the north, east and near Toa Payoh.

He was presented a certificate by the Guinness Book of Records yesterday, acknowledging his facility as the biggest of its kind. The runner-up is in Bangkok, with 44 pumps.

Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong, the adviser to the Taxi Operators' Associations and a guest at the station opening, noted in his speech that when Mr Teo entered the taxi trade in 2003, he was considered by some to be reckless. It was the year Sars hit, and many cabbies were unable to make ends meet.

Grit pulled him through, and his Trans-Cab is now second to Singapore's largest taxi company, ComfortDelGro Corp.

Mr Teo, who yesterday disclosed his plan to grow his fleet to 8,000 in five years, said gas has proven to be a viable alternative to diesel.

'The running cost of CNG is seven cents per km, versus 11 cents for diesel,' he noted.

But somehow, the cost factor has not been enough to make more car owners switch to CNG.

C. Melchers, the biggest company that converts vehicles to run on gas, said passenger car conversions hit a peak of 120 a month in the middle of last year, when petrol cost a record $2.50 a litre. In the last six months, the company has done just 10 conversions.

But its sales manager Gilbert von der Aue said interest seems to be returning. The company, which moved its conversion workshop to the Old Toh Tuck Road refuelling site, did four conversions in its first week there.

The refuelling station has a workshop, car wash, and the first 7-Eleven store to offer sit-down dining.