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Frustration in queues that slows down a fuel revolution


BBC A man in jeans, sandals and a plaid shirt stands next to his three-wheeled vehicle while waiting to fill the CNG tank.bbc

A revolution in vehicle fuel is gaining momentum in Tanzania, but a lack of filling stations means the country is stuck in second gear.

Like Nigeria and some other countries on the continent, Tanzania is beginning to adopt compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to gasoline and diesel.

It is considered cleaner and better for the environment than those fossil fuels, but its relative low price is the biggest draw for the roughly 5,000 motorists in the East African state who have embraced the change, particularly commercial drivers.

This represents a small fraction of Tanzania’s vehicles, but early adopters are paving the way for wider acceptance of CNG; The government reportedly wants almost full adoption by mid-century.

Tanzania has large reserves of gas under the sea and, for those who fill it up, CNG can cost less than half of its gasoline equivalent.

The potential savings were enough to persuade taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to spend around 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to convert his three-wheeled vehicle, known locally as a Bajaji, to CNG.

But now, having to get gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at a gas station in the largest city, Dar es Salaam, than earning money.

There are only four places in the commercial center of Tanzania where it can fill up.

Quietly frustrated, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to refuel, but the savings make it worth it, as he spends only 40% of what he would spend on the equivalent amount of gasoline.

The slow queues of vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station snake along the road. Things are in order (there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for Bajajis), but the irritation is palpable.

Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, who has already been in line for two hours, stares at the vehicles in front of him as he waits next to his silver van.

A man in a white cap, dark glasses and shirt stands in front of a line of vehicles.

Medadi Kichungo Ngoma remembers when refueling was easy

He tells the BBC he was one of the first people in the city to convert his vehicle, which involved installing a large cylinder in the back of the van, and remembers the short queues.

“Sometimes we had to call the manager to attend to us,” he says.

He complains that infrastructure has not been expanded to accommodate growing demand.

This is also the refrain heard at the city’s largest CNG filling station, near the airport.

Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka has waited here for three hours with his Bajaji.

“The line is very long,” he says, adding that “we should have as many stations as there are for gasoline vehicles.”

But price consideration will keep people coming back.

“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill my 11kg petrol tank, which allows me to travel about 180 kilometres,” says another motorist who introduces himself as Juma, adding that this is less than half of the cost of gasoline to cover the same distance. .

A large gas cylinder inside the trunk of a car.

The CNG tank must be installed in the trunk of the vehicle by an approved installer.

The initiative to encourage motorists to adopt CNG-powered vehicles in Tanzania emerged more than a decade ago, but did not begin in earnest until 2018.

Those responsible for the project acknowledge that they did not foresee the rapid increase in demand.

Aristides Kato, CNG project manager at state oil company Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), tells the BBC that recently “there has been a very dramatic increase” in the use of natural gas by vehicle owners.

“We found that we did not have enough infrastructure to support the demand for gas-powered vehicles,” he admits.

Authorities, however, want more people to switch to CNG because it is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel that produces fewer emissions of almost all types of air pollutants, according to the UN.

Additionally, locally available natural gas should allow for cheaper prices than gasoline. But the cost of converting a vehicle plus the lower mileage a full tank gives a motorist compared to gasoline or diesel may put some people off.

Two parallel queues of vehicles, one of three-wheeled Bajajs and another of cars waiting to refuel with natural gas.

Long queues are the norm at airport CNG station near Dar es Salaam

However, the country director of Taqa Arabia, an Egyptian company that runs the filling station near the airport, sees the growing demand as a “positive sign that the use of CNG has begun to develop in Tanzania.”

Amr Aboushady says his company plans to build more stations and hopes to “replicate our success story in Egypt by helping the (Tanzania) government better utilize natural gas as an affordable, reliable and cleaner source of energy.”

Egypt has pioneered the use of CNG on the continent, with around half a million vehicles converted to a dual-fuel system since the 1990s.

Other African countries that have approved the use of CNG for vehicles are South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Tanzanian authorities are committed to rolling out more infrastructure and hope to encourage more private investors to participate.

TPDC is building a central CNG “mother station” in Dar es Salaam, which will supply gas to smaller stations across the country.

Additionally, TPDC is procuring five CNG mobile units that will be located in Dar es Salaam, as well as the capital Dodoma, and Morogoro.

These measures should lead to shorter queues in the medium term, but for the moment the lack of filling stations will continue to frustrate Tanzania’s CNG pioneers.

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