Tourmaline, Clean Energy JV opens two new CNG stations
Tourmaline Oil and California’s Clean Energy Fuels (CEF) on October 22 opened two new compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling stations in Alberta to continue the build-out of a planned 20-station network across western Canada.
Tourmaline, Canada’s largest independent natural gas producer, and CEF, the largest distributor in North America of CNG and renewable natural gas (RNG) as vehicle fuel, launched a C$70mn joint development agreement in April 2023, soon after the first CNG station in the network was opened in Edmonton.
The two new stations were opened in Calgary and Grande Prairie, building a transportation corridor they say is critical for trucking companies to convert their vehicles from diesel to CNG. CNG offers reduced emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx and particulate matter than diesel.
“We are expanding our multi-year diesel displacement initiative by making CNG more readily available to heavy-duty trucking companies,” Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose said at the Calgary station opening. “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.”
Tourmaline and CEF have committed to opening a total of 20 CNG stations across western Canada in the next five years, and since the first facility opened in Edmonton, their customer base has grown to nine companies that have collectively displaced 2mn litres of diesel by utilising CNG technology.
Once complete, the 20-station network could fuel up to 3,000 natural gas-powered trucks daily. Construction on the next CNG station is set to begin in Kamloops, BC, with stations to follow in Fort McMurray, Alberta and Fort St. John, BC.
All stations will also be equipped with infrastructure needed to provide RNG as fuel, once supplies become more readily available in western Canada.