Tourmaline Oil Corp. (TSX:TOU), now the biggest natural gas producer in B.C.’s Montney formation, has completed the first stage of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling network it plans to build out in Alberta and B.C.
Tourmaline Oil, an Alberta company, and Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ:CLNE) last year signed a $70 million agreement to develop CNG fuelling stations for heavy duty trucks in B.C. and Alberta. The plan is to build up to 20 CNG fuelling stations along key corridors in the two western provinces.
Tourmaline today announced it has completed the first two CNG fuelling stationsin Calgary and Grande Prairie. This follows the opening of its first CNG fueling station in Edmonton last year.
Tourmaline said it will now start on its next station in Kamloops, followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.
Tourmaline said the CNG fuelling network will help facilitate long-haul fleet operators to convert from diesel to cleaner burning natural gas. At full build-out, the fuelling network will allow up to 3,000 trucks to refuel per day.
“We are expanding our multi-year diesel displacement initiative by making CNG more readily available to heavy-duty trucking companies,” Tourmaline CEO Michael Rose said in a press release.
“Right here in Alberta, we have the technology, an abundance of natural gas, and now the infrastructure to help facilitate a transformative shift in the transportation sector.”
Natural gas engines produce fewer CO2, NOx and SOx emissions, as well as less particulate matter, than diesel engines. As renewable natural gas (RNG) becomes more readily available, the fuelling networks will be able to accommodate RNG, the company said.
A number of fleet operators in B.C., including Vedder Transport and Denwill Enterprises, began converting their fleets to CNG and LNG a decade ago.
