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TPDC merits praise on gas-powered cars
2007-07-05 08:33:50
By Editor
Two splendid-looking vehicles parked at the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation`s pavilion at the ongoing 31st Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair have become icons attracting thousands of visitors to the fair grounds.
Prominently on display, the vehicles have engines so designed as to run on either petrol or natural gas - depending on the owners` preference. The flexibility has little precedence.
Even more exhilarating is the sight of indigenous Tanzanian mechanics competently skilled in the re-engineering of petrol or diesel-based vehicles, eventually enabling them to run on gas.
This development is a great plus for TPDC and the country that is set to do the national economy immense good.
It is scientific breakthrough that has come at a most opportune time, when world prices of fossil fuels are so stubbornly rising, as world oil deposits keep dwindling.
To add salt to the wound, the government has been lumping import tariffs on oil imports, as it has done with near perfection with the 2007/08 financial year that has just set in.
Most wananchi can hardly afford fossil fuels, which have been blamed for causing global warming and adverse climate change and become cause for the UN to advise nations to look for `green` or cleaner fuel sources of energy.
Fortunately, though, in 1974 AGIP discovered high quality natural gas resources at Songosongo.
Other vast reservoirs of gas were discovered in Mkuranga District and earlier this year, while TPDC believes even more gas fields could soon be discovered.
This is a golden opportunity we should capitalise on, some of the major challenges ahead being in respect of how best we can tap this natural wealth and fight a winning war against poverty.
As the experience of countries like South Africa, Egypt and India shows, effective application of natural gas in the automotive industry requires the availability of a critical mass of skilled mechanics for making engines run on gas instead of fossil fuels.
What this immediately implies is to task education policymakers to incorporate petrol-to-gas re-engineering mechanical courses in colleges of engineering and vocational training centres.
The same could possibly be achieved through the fiscal manoeuvres, say, by reducing import tariffs on gas-based vehicle imports.
Since the change from one technology to another is often received with scepticism by members of the public, the government should think about mounting a public awareness campaign.
This could start with Dar es Salaam, which is home to many gas outlets and has the highest concentration of vehicles and greenhouse gas emissions.
We stand to gain even more by making our vehicles run on natural gas.
In the longer term, maybe beginning three decades from now, the import bill on fossil fuels would tumble and the huge savings thus mobilised could be usefully allocated elsewhere.
Still, the mere fact that the per unit oil equivalent of natural gas is just around 810/- should not become an incentive to tax mongers to lump excessive excise duties on gas resources. That could throw things out of gear.
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