Trinidad and Tobago is a massive producer of Natural Gas in the Caribbean, but interestingly the country was offering highly subsidized liquid fuels until 6 years ago. Have in mind that Trinidad & Tobago holds one of the biggest GDP per capita of the region, although this subsidizing meant a big part of the country’s budget. The estimate rounds about 4billion TTD (Trinidad Dollars) per year which is about 590 million USD.
The path towards the NGC CNG Company
Interesting fact, there are about 1,000,000 vehicles in Trinidad and Tobago, a country with a population of 1,300,000 people. But that’s not all, you can find a lot of high end vehicles and european brands in many places, therefore the pool for potential CNG conversions is pretty remarkable.
In the early 80’s a first effort to run a CNG program was carried out, but with very little results. It wasn’t very vibrant, neither was viable. Mainly because the price differential was not there yet. The compressed natural gas ecosystem was in a poor state before 2014. It was possible only to convert about 1,500 vehicles, and of course there were no OEMs putting their original units on the market. But the pipeline infrastructure for most of the island was there several years ago.
So in 2013 the government approved the CNG initiative where they requested the NGC to create a company that would be in charge of making CNG a reality again and turn it into a feasible fuel for the years to come.
Mr Curtis Mohammed who at the moment was an executive at the NGC (natural gas company) serving as the VP of transmission and distribution received the challenge to create this company and bring back CNG. The NGC CNG company was created.
In 2013, Curtis Mohammed accepted the challenge to create the NGC CNG company to develop CNG for the country
The mandate was to achieve the following goals in conversions and stations:
- Get 22 stations
- Get 17,500vehicles
Amazingly, it only took until January 2014 for the new company to be fully operational. And the efforts started to roll with important efforts on getting the best technical team to make the stations a reality and the first compressors and dispensers were bought.
Developing Trinidad & Tobago CNG ecosystem
Over the coming years the government has moved progressively to alleviate the huge subsidizing, of course bumping up the growth of CNG which is now noticeable catapulting the number of CNG conversions and sales of vehicles at as much as 106% in only one year.
One remarkable fact is that in 2020, there are already about 18 models of OEMs available in the island, which is an important number of options, showcasing that it’s possible to offer this variety when the economics are there.
So, where is Trinidad right now with its statistics? Well, there are already 17 CNG stations and more than 12,000 vehicles, which is very close to the initial requirement (77% of stations and 68% of vehicles), and it shows. Back in 2014, was not on the radar of people in the island. Nobody knew about it. Now, 95% of the population know something about natural gas vehicles and they’re being impacted by the fuel in very important ways. Just to put it in perspective, we need to know the #1 selling sedan,according to the automotive dealers, is the Honda City CNG model. A CNG model!
Another piece that has not already been placed in the puzzle and that makes us dream of a big potential is the financing of equipment. Of those 12,000 conversions, only 4,000 have received some incentive or financing of the CNG kit. And this probably has to do with the difficult access to financing to most people in the country. Financing for small loans is not easy there.
What the future entails for the NGV market
So the next mission for Curtis and one he is working on right now is to create a microfinancing product for customers to access the conversions. The company is currently in the process of issuing a Request for Quotation to the local financiers in Trinidad & Tobago for making this happen. This would probably increase rapidly the number of conversions, and more if they can implement the vehicle id tagging system to ensure safety, but also that will enable financing mechanisms to take place.
For the upcoming years, we need to look closely into Trinidad and Tobago, because the second phase of the initiative is to achieve 50 CNG stations and a whopping 100,000 NGVs and the company continues to carry on important projects to work together with CNG conversion shops, fleet owners and public transportation.
The second phase of the natural gas vehicle initiative is to achieve 50 CNG stations and a whopping 100,000 NGVs
Biogas utilization and both LNG and L-CNG options throughout the country are also in the perspective of the NGC CNG company which will remain with a digital technology focus and maintaining a sustainable model.
So the future for CNG in Trinidad and Tobago looks very bright, where I’m sure that with regard of natural gas vehicles: “Together they aspire, together they achieve”.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
- Mr. Mohammed background before joining the NGC CNG Company (4:20)
- The state of development of T&T before the creation of the NGC CNG (7:45)
- About the price difference evolution since 2014. (12:20)
- How the NGC CNG company was created (18:05)
- The importance of marketing CNG in Trinidad and Tobago (27:00)
- The best selling sedan in Trinidad in Tobago (28:00)
- About building a team of experts to review CNG standards (34:00)
- The biggest hurdles for CNG in Trinidad (42:00)
- About financing CNG kits in Trinidad & Tobago (44:10)
- The next five years for the NGC CNG company (51:40)