The director of research and development at the Royal Thai Navy's dockyard, Samai Jai-in, said the ministries were negotiating to set up a business unit to support the project. They hope to begin producing the tanks to an internationally recognised quality standard within the next three years, Samai said. With an investment of Bt500 million, the project will be coordinated by the Naval Dockyard Department, which will also offer technical support.

A manufacturing plant and testing centre will be set up in Lop Buri province with a planned capacity of 120,000 CNG tanks per year. All will be supplied to PTT Plc.

Samai said imported CNG tanks cost about Bt15,000 each. It is expected the local product will cost about 20 per cent less.

PTT's executive vice president for natural gas vehicles, Nuttachat Charuchinda, said PTT plans to install CNG tanks in 60,000 vehicles by the end of this year. The figure is forecast to rise to 300,000 installations in 2009 and 500,000 in 2011.

Although PTT currently has only 60 CNG stations, it plans to have 450 up and running within three years and 740 nationwide within five years. "CNG is a good alternative to diesel and gasoline because it costs less and its price is stable," Nuttachat said.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation