World’s longest NGV rally powered by liquefied natural gas concludes in St. Petersburg
RELEASE
Release
Gas into Motors, the world’s longest rally for NGVs powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), concluded today at the 8th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.
The closing ceremony of the rally was attended by Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors, Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Wang Dongjin, Vice President of CNPC, Ling Xiao, Vice President of PetroChina, Alik Ashirov, Deputy Director General of KazTransGas Onimderі, and Uwe Fip, Senior Vice President of Uniper Global Commodities SE.
Participating in the rally were trucks, cars and buses fueled mostly by LNG and produced by Russian and Chinese manufacturers – AvtoVAZ, GAZ, KAMAZ, RariTEK, UAZ, URAL, Ankai, Hanzhongshenlan, Shanxi, and Yutong, as well as mobile NGV refuelers.
In 30 days, the rally participants travelled 9,881 kilometers across China, Kazakhstan and Russia. The NGVs successfully passed the test, demonstrating high reliability, safety, environmental friendliness and efficiency. For example, refueling the URAL Next truck with LNG reduced costs more than two times compared to diesel fuel: the savings amounted to RUB 120 thousand.
“The rally once again clearly showed the effectiveness of natural gas as a vehicle fuel. Especially when it comes to long freights, such as the ones on the emerging Europe – China international transit route. Together with our Chinese and Kazakh partners we plan to create a chain of LNG filling stations on this route. Only in its Russian part we intend to build a network of 14 such stations,” said Alexey Miller.
Background
The 8th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum is being held as part of the International Forum Russian Energy Week.
The Gas into Motors international NGV rally was sponsored by the largest energy majors in Russia, Kazakhstan, and China – Gazprom, KazMunayGas, and CNPC. The rally’s partners include Germany’s Uniper, and the Silkway Rally Association for the Support and Development of Motor Sports, the organizer of the Silk Way international rally.
The rally started in China’s Rudong on September 4, 2018, and mostly followed the emerging Europe – China international transit route. The rally passed through the cities of Suqian, Zhengzhou, Xian, Dingxi, Wuwei, Jiayuguan, Hami, Turfan, Usu, and Khorgas (China); Almaty, Taraz, Turkestan, Kyzylorda, Aralsk, and Aktobe (Kazakhstan); Orenburg, Almetyevsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Torzhok, and finished in St. Petersburg (Russia).
Refueling services in China were provided by KunLun Energy, a subsidiary of CNPC, in Kazakhstan and Russia – by Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo, with stationary facilities and mobile NGV refuelers used for that purpose.
Efforts to create natural gas filling infrastructure along the Europe – China route are being taken as part of cooperation between Gazprom, CNPC, and KazMunayGas. The respective memorandum was signed at the 7th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum on October 5, 2017.