Two compressed natural gas (CNG) depots will be set up in HCM City and Vung Tau, Nguyen Si Thang, chairman of Petrovietnam Southern Gas Joint-Stock Company, said.
Speaking at a conference titled “The Green Road to Vietnam” in HCM City on April 6, he said Vietnam plans to import 800 CNG buses and Ho Chi Minh City would begin a pilot project using 50 of them, starting July.
CNG can be used in traditional internal combustion engine vehicles that have been converted and costs half the price of gasoline.
By running on CNG instead of diesel, a bus is estimated to save US$8,000 a year besides virtually eliminating pollution since it is clean-burning.
CNG reduces carbon monoxide emission by 70 percent and 87 percent of nitrogen oxide compared to diesel.
Petro VN plans to set up 360 CNG retail stations throughout the country at a cost of over US$250 million by 2010.
The main sources of CNG are Petro VN’s plants in the Phu My Industrial Zone in Ba Ria-Vung Tau and the Go Dau Industrial Zone in Dong Nai Province.
