Natural gas producers pumped; but service centers still shuttered

CALGARY — It’s a case of a right-hand province not knowing what a left-hand province is up to.

First you have a Calgary company asking the Federal government to pony up $1 billion (yes, with a B) to outfit fuel stations along the 401 with natural-gas facilities.

At the same time, you have people who actually run the 401 floating their back teeth wondering when they’re going to get any fuel stations whatsoever, never mind if there’s natural gas at them or not.

EnCana is one of North America’s largest producers of natural gas and according to media reports, it has told the Feds that the public is reluctant to purchase natural-gas-powered vehicles because there’s no ready supply of the fuel.

Setting up a distribution system would help solve that problem and EnCana’s also talking to the provincial governments in B.C. and Alberta company about the problem.

But when it talked about Ontario, Encana failed to mention that none of the 23 stops on the highway are really open for business. They’ve been effectively shuttered for more than a year, ever since the province announced a complete retrofit and re-assignment of the property management.

We’re still waiting to find out which companies are going to get the right to lease and operate the roadside stations. Stay tuned to todaystrucking.com for details.

EnCana also failed to mention that even though its data showed that a conversion from diesel to natural gas would cut greenhouse gases by a third, no heavy-duty truck OEM has come to market with a financially viable natural-gas-powered rig.

Vancover’s Westport Innovations has been making serious progress with both Volvo and Cummins on the natural-gas front. And Westport’s joint venture with Cummins, Cummins Westport manufactures and sells the world’s broadest range of low-emissions alternative fuel engines for commercial transportation applications such as trucks and buses.

BTIC Westport — Westport’s joint venture with Beijing Tianhai Industry — manufactures and sells LNG fuel tanks for vehicles, and Westport’s joint venture with OMVL SpA — Juniper Engines — offers light-duty LPG engine solutions for industrial applications such as forklifts.

However Encana spokesman Alan Boras told CBC that new technologies have led to a “enormous new supplies coming on stream” and the company is encouraging Ottawa to offer financial incentives to truckers who make the switch to natural gas.