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Published on August 11, 2007

PTT expects the number of lorries running on natural gas for vehicles (NGV) to rise from 3,000 now to 6,000 by the year's end, due to concerns about fuel prices in the longer term.

PTT executive vice president Nattachart Jaruchinda said lorry operators were now fully aware about modifying their vehicles to run on NGV after seeing that the long-term results were worth the investment.

He said PTT would also more actively encourage privately owned public buses in Bangkok to switch to NGV with financing from a Bt2-billion low-interest loan scheme. About Bt450 million of the fund has been disbursed for the modification of 500 private buses.

Nattachart admitted that there had been less interest in converting taxis and private vehicles to the cheaper fuel.

"Demand has fluctuated, depending on the fuel-oil prices at the time. Right now, as retail oil prices have declined, the number of taxis and private vehicles on modification are 30-40 per day, against 50 to 60 when oil prices were higher," he said.

He added that taxis were inclined to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is even cheaper than NGV.

To attract more private vehicle owners to NGV, PTT plans to put a lightweight fuel tank on the market at the end of this year. Nattachart said some car-owners were deterred by the weight of the current 70-kilogram tanks.

However, the lighter tanks are 30 per cent more expensive and will be priced at about Bt17,000 compared with Bt14,000 for the 70kg tanks.

PTT has also set up a Bt5-billion loan scheme for private business operators and private car-owners, in collaboration with financial institutions, Nattachart said. However, PTT and the financial institutions have each given out loans totalling only Bt100 million.

"Some operators could not pass the lending conditions. It also concerns the interest rate. Since we demand that the loans carry interest of not more than 4 per cent per annum, participating financial institutions are not inclined to lend as the rate cannot cover the business risk," he said.