In the latest move to build demand for North America’s burgeoning natural gas supplies, industry and government officials met in Ottawa, Canada last Friday to launch what they are calling a roadmap for market development of natural gas as a transportation fuel throughout the nation.

The meeting was coordinated by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), a branch of the national government dedicated to enhancing the sustainable use of its natural resources, and supported by the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA), which in late 2010 published the roadmap now being implemented, “Natural Gas Use in the Canadian Transportation Sector.”

The roadmap’s focus initially is to develop more of a market in Canada for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses operating in regional corridors and urban fleets.

Separately, on Monday a unit of California-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., IMW Industries, introduced a new self-contained, mobile compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station designed for small to mid-size vehicle fleets. Offering both time-fill and fast-fill fueling capabilities, the natural gas compression/dispensing system is mounted on a 24-foot trailer for quick deployment to fleet locations across the country to provide CNG fueling for new fleets or while a permanent station is under construction or undergoing equipment maintenance (see related story).

As Canada’s second largest sector for energy consumption, transportation is projected to grow as a user and emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to the CNGVA report. “Natural gas is an affordable, lower-emission fuel and industry is making significant investments to bring it into the transportation market,” according to Encana Corp. Vice President Wayne Geis, who is also the incoming chairman at CNGVA.

Calling it a win-win, Geis said more collaboration is expected to accelerate the fleet use of natural gas in Canada where CNG is still in its infancy. The new initiative should “create the right conditions for even greater private-sector investment,” he said.

NRCan said that through a program called “ecoENERGY for Alternative Fuels” it plans to provide support for the early stages of the roadmap implementation by creating a bilingual, national website, establishing two regional resource hubs for fleets, and reinitiating codes and standards activities for natural gas vehicles.

Canada’s Minster for Natural Resources Joe Oliver said gas is expected to play what he called “a very prominent place” in Canada’s future energy and economic development. “The government of Canada is committed to working together with the natural gas industry to encourage innovation and job creation across Canada and reduce GHG emissions.”

Transportation provides a new market for Canada’s gas, offsetting the ongoing declines in the nation’s exports to the United States, Oliver said. He reiterated that the new initiative is looking to help create new jobs in the supply chain for fuel, vehicles and stations as the North American market demand for gas continues to increase.

Nevertheless, the December 2010 CNGVA report has acknowledged that despite its potential benefits as a transportation fuel, natural gas adoption in the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle markets in Canada has been “very limited to date.” The report attributed this to “significant challenges” associated with NGV deployment in Canada, including operating risks associated with costs and technology performance, high upgrade vehicle costs, lack of widespread infrastructure and some noneconomic issues like lack of experience with NGVs.

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