Westport Innovations said that it has signed a market development agreement focused on expanding the use of natural gas vehicles in Russia with Gazprom’s unit Gazprom Gazomotornoye Toplivo.
Gazprom has 200 existing compressed natural gas stations, with plans to invest in existing station upgrades and new station construction to meet a target of about 500 fuelling stations by 2020, Westport said in a statement.
According to Gazprom, CNG consumption is projected to grow from 0.4 billion cubic meters in 2013 to 10.4 billion cubic meters by 2020, and LNG consumption to grow from zero to 3.8 million tons per year. Thirty-one regions in Russia have been selected for investment projects promoting the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.
“In addition to assessing localized manufacturing and building relationships with Russian OEMs for vehicle development opportunities, Westport will advise on regulatory requirements to enable effective use of natural gas in transportation,” said Maurizio Grando, Executive Vice President, Applied Technologies Group at Westport .
According to Power Systems Research, there were a total of 2.2 million units sold in the light-duty market (cars, light-duty trucks and vans) in Russia in 2013. In the medium- and heavy-duty bus and truck market, there were 119,881 units sold in the same timeframe.
Image: Gazprom