The BBCTanzania’s vehicle fuel revolution is gaining momentum, but a lack of filling stations means it’s stuck in second gear.
Like Nigeria and some other countries on the continent, Tanzania has started to adopt compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to petrol and diesel.
It is considered cleaner and better for the environment than those fossil fuels, but its relative cheapness is the biggest draw for the 5,000 or so motorists in the East African state who have embraced the switch – Especially commercial drivers.
It represents a small fraction of Tanzanian vehicles, but early adopters are paving the way for wider acceptance of CNG – the government reportedly wants full adoption by the middle of this century.
Tanzania has large gas reserves under the sea and for those filling them, CNG can cost less than half of its petrol.
The potential savings involved taxi owner Samuel Amos Erubi parting with about 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to convert his three-wheeler – known locally as a baji – to CNG. It was enough.
But now, after getting gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at a filling station in Dar es Salaam, the largest city, than making money.
There are only four places he can fill in Tanzania’s commercial hub.
Quietly frustrated, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to refuel, but the savings are worth it, as he spends only 40 percent of the equivalent amount of gasoline. does
Slow queues of vehicles snaked down the road at the Obungo CNG station. Things are organized – there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for bikes – but the irritation is palpable.
Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, already in line for two hours, stares at the cars ahead of him as he waits for his silver pickup truck.
He tells the BBC he was among the first in the city to modify his vehicle, which involved fitting a large cylinder to the back of a pickup, and reminisced about the short queues.
“Sometimes a servant has to be called to serve us,” he says.
He complains that the infrastructure has not expanded to meet the growing demand.
The same refrain is heard at the city’s biggest CNG filling stations near the airport.
Sadeghi Christian Makumbuka waited here for three hours with his Baji.
“The queue is too long,” he says, adding that “we have as many stations as petrol vehicles”.
But considering the price will keep people coming back.
“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill my 11kg gas tank, which goes about 180km,” says another motorcyclist who introduces himself as Juma. It is less than half the price of petrol to travel the same distance, he added. .
Efforts to encourage motorists to adopt CNG-powered vehicles in Tanzania began a decade ago but did not take off until 2018.
Those in charge of the project admit that they did not anticipate the rapid increase in demand.
Aristides Kato, CNG project manager at state-owned oil firm Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), told the BBC that there had been a “huge increase” in the use of natural gas by vehicle owners recently.
“We found ourselves not having enough infrastructure to meet the demand for gas-guzzling vehicles,” he admits.
Although officials want more people to switch to CNG because it is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel that results in lower emissions of almost all types of air pollutants, according to the United Nations.
Also, locally available natural gas should allow for cheaper prices than gasoline. But the cost of replacing the vehicle plus the low mileage that a full tank motorcycle gives compared to petrol or diesel is deterring some people.
However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, an Egyptian company that operates a filling station near the airport, sees the growing demand as “a positive sign that CNG usage in Tanzania is starting to grow”.
Amr Abu Shahdi says his firm plans to build more stations and hopes to “help repeat our success story in Egypt.” [Tanzanian] Government should use natural gas as an affordable, reliable, clean energy source”.
Egypt pioneered the use of CNG on the continent, with nearly half a million vehicles converted to dual-fuel systems since the 1990s.
Other African countries that have approved the use of CNG for vehicles include South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
Tanzanian authorities are committed to developing more infrastructure and hope to encourage more private investors to get involved.
TPDC is building a central CNG “mother station” in Dar es Salaam, which will supply gas to smaller stations across the country.
In addition, TPDC is procuring five mobile CNG units that will be located in Dar es Salaam as well as in the capital, Dodoma and Morogoro.
These measures should reduce queues in the medium term, but for now the lack of filling stations will continue to frustrate Tanzania’s CNG pioneers.
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