Methane-powered fleet to be considerably extended
RELEASE
News from projects and regions
Today Viktor Zubkov, Gazprom Board of Directors Chairman, Management Committee Chairman – Director General of Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo and heads of several major transport & equipment manufacturers and distributors, namely BELAZ, Volvo Vostok, Test Machine Plant, IVEKO-AMT, Concern Tractor Plants, Liebherr-Russland and Scania-Rus signed Memorandums for using natural gas as a motor fuel.
This cooperation is mainly aimed at broadening the range of vehicles that use methane as a motor fuel. The parties are keen to work together in several fields. First of all, the companies will devise programs for creating, testing and manufacturing the methane-powered equipment to be used in different areas – construction, freight transport, agriculture and utility services.
The parties will work out proposals for federal and regional authorities to create a supportive environment for introducing NGVs on a large scale.
Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo will supervise the construction of infrastructure facilities in the areas where gas-fired vehicles are closely arranged. The parties are planning to share the information about the regions in need of and interested in different kinds of gas-fired vehicles. Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo will take these regions into consideration while developing the program on construction of CNG filling stations. Thus, the gas-powered vehicle supplies to Russia’s constituent entities will be synchronized with the plans to create the gas fueling infrastructure.
“The Russian NGV market has a very high potential for expanding the businesses of equipment producers. Today several agreements were signed with major transport manufacturers and distributors. As a result of our joint activities, the variety of gas-powered vehicles produced by world’s leading manufacturers and sold in Russia will be more diverse,” said Viktor Zubkov.
Background
For the purpose of improving the efficiency of the NGV market development strategy Gazprom set up a special-purpose company – Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo – consolidating the Company's relevant assets.
BELAZ is the managing company of BELAZ-HOLDING, focused on manufacturing heavy- and extra-heavy duty dump trucks as well as other heavy transportation equipment used in mining and construction industries. The company was founded in 1948.
Volvo Vostok is a subsidiary of the Volvo Group international concern. Volvo has been and nowadays remains a global leader in designing motor vehicles powered by alternative fuels, including natural gas. At present, Volvo Trucks is developing a new concept for using natural gas in Volvo diesel engines and actively promoting LNG in the transportation sector.
Test Machine Plant manufactures a wide range of special purpose automotive equipment. The company’s major businesses embrace the production of mobile laboratories, workshops, welding units, maintenance crew vehicles for servicing and constructing oil and gas pipelines. The company produces motor vehicles mounted on chassis of IVECO, KAMAZ and Ural trucks.
A joint Russian-Italian venture IVECO-AMT manufactures, under the Iveco license, heavy-duty vehicles adapted to Russian operational conditions. Together with its exclusive dealer Test Machine Plant, the company introduces in Russia the Eurocargo CNG and Stralis CNG chassis driven by methane-powered engines. In 2014 it is planned to produce 1,200 units of NGVs.
Concern Tractor Plants is a major Russian integrator of sci-tech, engineering & manufacturing and financial resources in the machine building industry both in Russia and abroad. The main businesses of the company include industrial, rolling-stock and agricultural machine building activities as well as special purpose machine building and production of spare parts.
Liebherr-Russland is a Russian subsidiary of Liebherr Group, a global leader in producing the construction, transportation, port, metal-working and cooling equipment. The Liebherr-Russland scope of activities includes selling and servicing all the Liebherr products in Russia. Liebherr-Russland supports a vast network of branches and service centers in all federal districts of the Russian Federation. Today, over seven thousand units of Liebherr construction and lifting equipment operate in Russia.
Scania-Rus is an official importer and distributor of Scania equipment since 1998. The company supplies the Russian market not only with the high-quality equipment of the global Scania concern, but also offers a full range of services – from financing the purchase of equipment and its maintenance to a subsequent buyout of client’s vehicles as a payment for the new Scania equipment. Scania has 54 dealer and service centers operating throughout Russia.