CNG in Tanzania: Queuing frustration slows fuel revolution

A vehicle fuel revolution is gaining momentum in Tanzania, but a lack of fuel stations means it is stuck in second gear.

Like Nigeria and some other countries on the continent, Tanzania is beginning to adopt compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to gasoline and diesel.

It is considered cleaner and better for the environment than these fossil fuels, but its relatively low price is the main attraction for the approximately 5,000 motorists in the East African state who have embraced the change – in especially commercial drivers.

It’s a small fraction of Tanzania’s vehicles, but early adopters are paving the way for wider acceptance of CNG – the government would like near-total adoption by mid-century.

Tanzania has significant reserves of gas under the sea and, for those who fill up, CNG can cost less than half its gasoline equivalent.

The potential saving was enough to persuade taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to fork out about 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($620; 394,320 francs CFA) to convert his three-wheeled vehicle – known locally as a bajaji – to CNG.

But now that he has to fetch gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at a gas station in the biggest city, Dar es Salaam, than earning money.

There are only four places in the commercial hub of Tanzania where he can stock up.

Quietly frustrated, he explains that he has to wait at least three hours each time he wants to fill up, but that the savings are worth it, since he only spends 40% of what he would spend on a equivalent quantity of gasoline.

The queues of vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station snake along the road. Things are orderly – there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for bajajis – but the irritation is palpable.

Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, who has been waiting in line for two hours already, stares at the vehicles in front of him as he waits near his silver pickup.

He tells the BBC he was one of the first people in town to convert his vehicle, which involved fitting a large cylinder to the back of the pick-up, and remembers the short queues waiting.

“Sometimes we had to call the attendant to help us.”

He complains that infrastructure has not developed to meet growing demand.

This is also the refrain heard at the city’s largest CNG gas station, located near the airport.

Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka has been waiting here for three hours with his bajaji.

“The queue is very long,” he said, adding that “we should have as many stations as there are gasoline vehicles.”

But considering price will keep people coming back.

“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; 3,816 CFA francs) to fill my 11 kg tank, which allows me to travel about 180 km,” said another motorist who gave his name as Juma, adding that this is less than half the cost of gasoline to travel the same distance.

The initiative to encourage motorists to adopt CNG-powered vehicles in Tanzania was launched more than a decade ago, but only began in earnest in 2018.

Project leaders admit they did not anticipate the rapid increase in demand.

Aristides Kato, CNG project manager at the state-owned Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), tells the BBC that there has recently been a “very significant increase” in the use of natural gas by vehicle owners.

“We didn’t have enough infrastructure to meet the demand for gas-powered vehicles,” he admits.

Officials, however, want more people to adopt CNG because it is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel that produces fewer emissions of almost all types of air pollutants, according to the United Nations.

In addition, locally available natural gas should provide lower prices than gasoline. But the cost of converting a vehicle and the lower mileage a full tank allows a motorist to travel compared to petrol or diesel may put some people off.

However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, an Egyptian company that runs the gas station near the airport, sees the growing demand as a “positive sign that the use of CNG has started to grow in Tanzania.”

Amr Aboushady says his company plans to build more stations and hopes to “replicate our success in Egypt by helping the government [tanzanien] to better use natural gas as an affordable, reliable and cleaner energy source.”

Egypt has been a pioneer in the use of CNG on the continent, with around half a million vehicles converted to a dual-fuel system since the 1990s.

Other African countries have approved the use of CNG for vehicles, including South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Tanzanian authorities have pledged to deploy more infrastructure and hope to encourage more private investors to get involved.

A central CNG “mother station” is being built in Dar es Salaam by TPDC, which will supply gas to smaller stations throughout the country.

Additionally, TPDC is in the process of acquiring five mobile CNG units which will be installed in Dar es Salaam as well as the capital, Dodoma, and Morogoro.

These measures should help reduce queues in the medium term, but for now, the lack of service stations will continue to frustrate Tanzania’s CNG pioneers.