Not too much excitement for gas vehicles in Indonesia

Bajaj, three-wheeled motorized vehicle, driver Casijan, 48 from Indonesia, has to drive 8 kilometers every day to fill up his gas tank with compressed natural gas (CNG) at the nearest gas station. The station is far from where he operates, he says. With a Bajaj it is a Rp 40,000 [US$3] trip,” said the father of three, who fills up Rp 25,000 CNG fuel a day to take customers around Mangga Dua, Pasar Baru and Senen Market.

Distant stations and long lines are just some of the reasons why CNG and liquefied gas for vehicle (LGV) never gained popularity in Indonesia since its introduction in 2012. Expensive installations of converter kits and a small price discrepancy with gasoline are the others. “There needs to be a government policy that encourages people to switch over, as the public does not get any incentives to do so, especially since they can purchase subsidized fuel at an equally competitive price,” said Wianda Pusponegoro, spokesperson for Indonesia’s biggest fuel distributor, state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina.

LGV, sold by Pertamina under the brand Vi-Gas, comes with a price tag of Rp 5,100 per liter, while the most popular fuel for Indonesians, a 88-octane fuel branded Premium, is sold at Rp 6,450 per liter. Its CNG product, Envogas, widely used by bajaj and the Jakarta Transjakarta bus system, is priced at Rp 3,100 per liter. The government has been trying to encourage increased use of gas, thought to be the cleaner counterpart to other fossil fuels, by ordering Pertamina and state-owned gas company Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) to build and operate more gas stations.

The number of gas stations is expected to triple to 173 by 2019 from 55 at present, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. In India, where CNG has been available since 1993, there are 1,010 CNG stations serving around 25,500 vehicles that can do dual fuel with gasoline. In China, there are 1.5 to 2 million vehicles that run on CNG, in comparison with 25 million estimated globally, while liquefied gas consumption has grown rapidly in the world’s second-largest economy.