Pakistan Pushes Harder on CNG Conversions and Deployment

11 August 2005

Daily Times. The Board of Governors the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) has directed the institute to make all-out efforts to start manufacturing CNG conversion kits and cylinders in the country to reduce dependence on imports and to further accelerate the adoption of CNG as a transport fuel.

The Minister of Petroleum, who is the chairman of HDIP, also directed the institute to accelerate its efforts to establish CNG buses in Islamabad.

HDIP is Pakistan’s national petroleum R&D organization. It is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources, and carries out applied research, provides consultancy and laboratory services to the petroleum industry and renders technical advice to the Government.

The Institute is also an important player in the government’s focus on encouraging CNG as an alternative transportation fuel.

HDIP operates CNG stations at Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Quetta that convert vehicles to CNG, dispense the gas and monitor the performance of CNG technology in the country.

As of August, 2005, more than 800,000 vehicles in Pakistan have converted to CNG and 750 CNG fueling stations are operational while another 200 are under construction in different parts of the country.

According to International Association for Natural GAS vehicles (IANGV) statistics, Pakistan is third globally in the number of CNG vehicles in its fleet, with Argentina and Brazil numbers one and two, respectively.