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On October 3, 2024, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) has said that a recent shortage of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for vehicles was caused by a power outage at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) station.
TPDC’s Acting Director for Oil and Gas Business, Emmanuel Gilbert, spoke to reporters today.
"There was a power problem at the airport station, which needs electricity to compress the gas," he said
He explained that the outage lasted for about 21 hours.
"The issue happened at night and was fixed by around 9 p.m. the next day. But the service is now back to normal," he added.
Currently, only three stations provide CNG services in the country: Ubungo, Tazara, and JNIA. Gilbert said there are now about 4,800 vehicles using CNG, but these stations can only serve 1,200 to 1,500 vehicles per day.
"When one station has a problem, people have to wait in line for two to four hours because only two stations are left working," Gilbert said.
To solve the issue of having few stations, Gilbert explained that TPDC has allowed private companies to invest in building more stations.
"We have licensed 40 companies to invest in CNG stations. But so far, only two new stations—Tazara and JNIA—have been built by the private sector. The Ubungo station has been around since 2014," he noted
He added that more companies are working on building additional stations.
"By June next year, we expect to have 13 more stations operating," he said.