Coming soon to a truck stop near you: natural gas semis..Canada’s largest natural gas producer, Tourmaline Oil Corp., is teaming up with California-based Clean Energy Fuels to build a network of 20 compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations over the next five years along key highway corridors in western Canada. Calgary-based Mullen Group, one of North America’s largest trucking and logistics firms, agreed to sign on as its first major client..Total cost of the project is estimated at $70 million. Tourmaline will supply the gas while Clean Energy will operate the stations. It presently supplies about 70% of the CNG used in California, and is the largest provider of so-called ‘renewable’ natural gas — methane from landfills — in North America..At a news conference in Calgary, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose said the initiative would help the company reduce its overall emissions profile while expanding the market for clean fuels. Although it isn’t expected to be a huge money maker compared to its upstream E&P business, he described it “as the right thing to do” to displace diesel fuel as a primary transportation fuel. The company is already using natural gas to power its own fleet of drilling rigs and heavy haul trucks..He noted small incremental steps will eventually lead to larger emissions reductions over the longer term. Under federal legislation, the oil and gas industry is required to slash emissions some 42% by 2030..“Across our operations, we have achieved significant emission reductions and cost savings by displacing higher-emitting fuels with natural gas. Thanks to the exciting initiative, we're able to help the transportation industry do the same,” he said..Rose, who has a reputation as a huge baseball fan, summed it thusly: “We’re still in the bottom of the first inning but we intend to take it the full nine.”.It comes as the federal government this week blamed the oil and gas and transportation sectors for a 1.9% increase in the country’s CO2 emissions, which were disclosed to the UN under the terms of the Paris Accord. Combined, they account for about a third of Canada’s 659 megatonnes of CO2 emissions. .Based on the anticipated commissioning of up to 20 stations over the next five years, approximately 3,000 natural gas-powered trucks could be fuelled using CNG every day, resulting in a reduction of approximately 72,800 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, or the equivalent of removing 15,690 passenger vehicles from the road. As future demand increases, the capacity of the stations can be expanded, and new stations added, which would result in greater environmental performance improvement, the companies said in a statement..The first station, located north of Edmonton, is already operational and well-positioned for heavy-haul transport routes with close proximity to key customers and stakeholders in the oil patch. The next stations Tourmaline and Clean Energy expect to commission in the first half of 2024 are anticipated to be located in Calgary, Grande Prairie and Kamloops, BC..For his part, Mullen said his company is commissioning a new fleet of heavy trucks using Cummins’ new 15-litre CNG engine, which has been a key stumbling block for the uptake of natural gas in vehicle fleets. He said supply chain issues and the lack of super-powered motors are starting to “work themselves out.”.He also noted electric batteries in long haul trucks is impractical, although the company is electrifying its fleet of shuttles and local delivery vehicles..All the parties stressed there is no government money, grants or subsidies associated with the initiative — although Mullen said he would be in favour of generating emissions credits under any carbon tax rebate plan. It’s not clear if such a plan even exists..That didn’t stop politicians from weighing in..“This is an exciting development for Alberta's energy and transportation industries and a major step toward a lower-emission future for all Canadians,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in a release..“As Tourmaline and Clean Energy collaborate to make CNG readily available for heavy-haul trucks, we applaud their innovative thinking and support this free-market approach to significantly reducing emissions.”
Coming soon to a truck stop near you: natural gas semis..Canada’s largest natural gas producer, Tourmaline Oil Corp., is teaming up with California-based Clean Energy Fuels to build a network of 20 compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations over the next five years along key highway corridors in western Canada. Calgary-based Mullen Group, one of North America’s largest trucking and logistics firms, agreed to sign on as its first major client..Total cost of the project is estimated at $70 million. Tourmaline will supply the gas while Clean Energy will operate the stations. It presently supplies about 70% of the CNG used in California, and is the largest provider of so-called ‘renewable’ natural gas — methane from landfills — in North America..At a news conference in Calgary, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose said the initiative would help the company reduce its overall emissions profile while expanding the market for clean fuels. Although it isn’t expected to be a huge money maker compared to its upstream E&P business, he described it “as the right thing to do” to displace diesel fuel as a primary transportation fuel. The company is already using natural gas to power its own fleet of drilling rigs and heavy haul trucks..He noted small incremental steps will eventually lead to larger emissions reductions over the longer term. Under federal legislation, the oil and gas industry is required to slash emissions some 42% by 2030..“Across our operations, we have achieved significant emission reductions and cost savings by displacing higher-emitting fuels with natural gas. Thanks to the exciting initiative, we're able to help the transportation industry do the same,” he said..Rose, who has a reputation as a huge baseball fan, summed it thusly: “We’re still in the bottom of the first inning but we intend to take it the full nine.”.It comes as the federal government this week blamed the oil and gas and transportation sectors for a 1.9% increase in the country’s CO2 emissions, which were disclosed to the UN under the terms of the Paris Accord. Combined, they account for about a third of Canada’s 659 megatonnes of CO2 emissions. .Based on the anticipated commissioning of up to 20 stations over the next five years, approximately 3,000 natural gas-powered trucks could be fuelled using CNG every day, resulting in a reduction of approximately 72,800 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, or the equivalent of removing 15,690 passenger vehicles from the road. As future demand increases, the capacity of the stations can be expanded, and new stations added, which would result in greater environmental performance improvement, the companies said in a statement..The first station, located north of Edmonton, is already operational and well-positioned for heavy-haul transport routes with close proximity to key customers and stakeholders in the oil patch. The next stations Tourmaline and Clean Energy expect to commission in the first half of 2024 are anticipated to be located in Calgary, Grande Prairie and Kamloops, BC..For his part, Mullen said his company is commissioning a new fleet of heavy trucks using Cummins’ new 15-litre CNG engine, which has been a key stumbling block for the uptake of natural gas in vehicle fleets. He said supply chain issues and the lack of super-powered motors are starting to “work themselves out.”.He also noted electric batteries in long haul trucks is impractical, although the company is electrifying its fleet of shuttles and local delivery vehicles..All the parties stressed there is no government money, grants or subsidies associated with the initiative — although Mullen said he would be in favour of generating emissions credits under any carbon tax rebate plan. It’s not clear if such a plan even exists..That didn’t stop politicians from weighing in..“This is an exciting development for Alberta's energy and transportation industries and a major step toward a lower-emission future for all Canadians,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said in a release..“As Tourmaline and Clean Energy collaborate to make CNG readily available for heavy-haul trucks, we applaud their innovative thinking and support this free-market approach to significantly reducing emissions.”
