Tanzania's fuel revolution was marred by a lack of filling stations

Conversion to vehicle fuel is accelerating in Tanzania, but the lack of filling stations means it is stuck in second gear.

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

It is considered cleaner and better for the environment than those fossil fuels, but its cheapness is the biggest draw for the 5,000 or so drivers in the East African state who have adopted it. the change – especially commercial drivers.

This represents a small fraction of Tanzanian vehicles, but the early adopters are paving the way for wider CNG adoption – the government reportedly wants near-total adoption by mid-century.

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

The potential saving was enough to persuade taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to part with around 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to buy his three-wheeled vehicle – known as local bajaji – to convert to CNG.

But now, getting the gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at a filling station in the biggest city, Dar es Salaam, than he earns money.

There are only four places in the commercial center of Tanzania where it can fill.

Quietly frustrating, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to refuel, but the savings make it worth it, as it costs just 40% of what it would have been it on the same amount of petrol.

The slow moving queues of vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station go down the road. Things are orderly – there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for bajajis – but the humility is palpable.

Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, in the queue for two hours already, looks at the vehicles in front of him as he waits next to his money collection truck.

A man in a white cap, dark glasses and shirt is standing in front of a line of vehicles. — Medadi Kichungo Ngoma remembers when refueling was easy (BBC)

He tells the BBC that he was one of the first people in the town to change his vehicle, which involved putting a large cylinder behind the building, and remembers the short queues.

“Sometimes the waiter had to be called to serve us,” he says.

He complains that the infrastructure has not expanded to accommodate the growing demand.

This is also the refrain heard at the biggest CNG filling stations in the city near the airport.

Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka has waited 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 for petrol vehicles”.

But price considerations keep people coming back.

“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill up my 11kg gas tank, which goes for about 180km,” said another motorist who introduces himself as Juma, saying this is less than half the cost of petrol to cover the same distance.

A large gas cylinder inside the boot of a car. — The CNG tank must be installed in the boot of a vehicle with an approved tool (BBC)

The drive to encourage motorists to adopt CNG-powered vehicles in Tanzania was born over a decade ago but did not begin in earnest until 2018.

Those in charge of the project admit that they did not see a rapid increase in demand.

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

“We found that we didn't have enough infrastructure to support the demand for gas-powered vehicles,” he admits.

The authorities, however, want more people to switch to CNG because it is a relatively clean fossil fuel that leads to less emissions of almost all type of air pollution, according to the UN.

In addition the natural gas available locally should allow for cheaper prices than petrol. But the cost of converting a vehicle and the lower mileage a full tank will give a driver compared to petrol or diesel may put some people off.

Two parallel queues of vehicles - one of three-wheeled bajajs and others of cars while waiting to fill up with natural gas. — Long queues are the norm at the airport's CNG station near Dar es Salaam (BBC)

However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, an Egyptian company that runs the filling station near the airport, sees the growing demand as “a positive sign that the use of CNG is starting to take off.” development in Tanzania”.

Amr Aboushady says he has strong plans to build more stations and hopes to “repeat our success story in Egypt by helping the (Tanzanian) government to use natural gas as an affordable source of energy , reliable and cleaner”.

Egypt has started 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 that have approved the use of CNG for vehicles include South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

The authorities in Tanzania are committed to rolling out 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 across the country.

In addition, TPDC is acquiring five mobile CNG units which will be located in Dar es Salaam as well as the capital, Dodoma, and Morogoro.

These measures should in the medium term lead to shorter queues, but for now the lack of filling stations will continue to hamper Tanzania's CNG pioneers.