Jakartans get safer and cheaper gas-based fuel

Ika Krismantari and Tifa Asrianti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 03/18/2008 1:14 AM  |  Headlines

State oil and gas firm Pertamina on Monday introduced in Jakarta a liquefied gas for vehicles (LGV) that it claims to be eco-friendly and safer than other gas-based fuels.

The product, which is called Vi-Gas, has a pressure level of eight to 12 bars, which is much lower than compressed natural gas (CNG), which has a pressure level of about 200 bars. This means the use of Vi-Gas in vehicles is safer than CNG.

Installing a converter kit in vehicles for Vi-Gas is less expensive than for CNG, about Rp 25 million (US$2,717), or Rp 10 million cheaper than a CNG converter kit.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said he expected to see more vehicles in the capital moving over to Vi-Gas.

"The city administration will in the future oblige taxis and bajaj (three-wheeled motorized pedicabs) to use this kind of fuel," Fauzi said.

As part of its campaign for more eco-friendly fuel usage, the city administration has required since 2005 all public transportation vehicles, as well as the city administration's operational vehicles, to run on CNG.

This move is seen as part of efforts to clean up the city's severe air pollution.

"In 2008, we target to have around 500 busway buses using gas-based fuels," Fauzi said, adding currently there are around 250 TransJakarta buses using CNG.

The busway was the city's first CNG project, as was followed by other programs targeting other public transportation vehicles like taxis and bajaj.

However, of the 86,995 public transportation vehicles in Jakarta, only 891 use gas-based fuels.

The CNG project was first introduced in 1997 but public interest has remained low, partly due to the small number of service stations in the city selling CNG.

There have also been questions about the safety of CNG, which only intensified with the recent explosion on a TransJakarta bus during maintenance, while another CNG bus caught fire last month.

Pertamina deputy director for marketing and trading, Hanung Budya, said during the launch of Vi-Gas the company this year planned to build eight more gas stations in the city offering the fuel, with a total investment of about Rp 24 billion (about US$2.6 million).

Currently, Vi-Gas is only available at a gas station on Jl. Pramuka in East Jakarta, at a price of Rp 3,600 per liter.

Hanung also said in the next two years, the company hoped to cut the city's consumption of subsidized gasoline by 10 percent annually, or about 180,000 kiloliters, and replace it with Vi-Gas.

Currently, Jakarta consumes 1.8 million kiloliters of subsidized gasoline a year. According to data from the administration, some 2.5 million private cars and 3.8 million motorcycles are on the city's roads during weekdays.

That excludes the 700,000 vehicles commuting to and from Jakarta every day.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.