Frustration in the queues that are stopping the fuel revolution

The car fuel revolution is gaining momentum in Tanzania, but a lack of filling stations means it’s stuck in second gear.

Like Nigeria and some other countries on the continent, Tanzania is starting to use compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to petrol and diesel.

It is considered cleaner and better for the environment than fossil fuels, but its relative cheapness is the biggest draw for the roughly 5,000 motorists in the East African state who have embraced the change – especially commercial drivers.

That’s a small proportion of Tanzania’s cars, but LNG early adopters are paving the way for wider acceptance of LNG – the government reportedly wants near-total adoption by mid-century.

Tanzania has large reserves of gas under the sea, and for those refueling, LNG can cost less than half the petrol equivalent.

The potential savings were enough to convince taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to part with about 1.5 million Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to convert his three-wheeled vehicle, known locally as a bajaji, to CNG.

But now that he has to get gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at gas stations in the largest city of Dar es Salaam than he does making money.

There are only four places where he can refuel in the commercial center of Tanzania.

Quietly frustrated, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to fill up, but the savings are worth it as he only spends 40% of what he would have spent on an equivalent amount of petrol.

Slow-moving queues of vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station snake down the road. It’s fine – there are three distinct lines, one for cars and two for Bajaj – but the irritation is palpable.

Medadi Kichunga Ngoma, who has been in line for two hours, looks at the cars ahead as he waits outside his silver pickup truck.

He tells the BBC he was one of the first people in the city to convert his car, which involved installing a large cylinder in the back of a pick-up, and recalls the short queues.

“Sometimes we had to call an attendant to serve us,” he says.

He complains that the infrastructure is not expanding to meet the growing demand.

It’s also the chorus that can be heard at the city’s largest gas station near the airport.

Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka waited here for three hours with his bajaji.

“The queue is very long,” he says, adding that “we should have as many stations as there are gas cars.”

But the price will keep people coming back.

“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill up my 11kg tank of petrol which goes about 180km,” says another motorist, who identified himself as Juma, adding that it is less than half the cost of petrol to cover the same distance.

The initiative to encourage motorists to use CNG-powered cars in Tanzania started more than a decade ago, but only took off in earnest in 2018.

Project managers admit that they did not foresee the rapid growth in demand.

Aristides Kato, manager of LNG projects at the state oil firm Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), tells the BBC that recently “there has been a very dramatic increase” in the use of natural gas by vehicle owners.

“We found that we didn’t have enough infrastructure to support the demand for gas-powered cars,” he admits.

Authorities, however, want more people to switch to LNG because it is a relatively clean fossil fuel that results in fewer emissions of nearly all types of air pollutants, according to the United Nations.

Also, natural gas available locally should allow for cheaper prices than gasoline. But the cost of converting the vehicle, plus the lower mileage that a full tank gives a motorist compared to petrol or diesel, may put some people off.

However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, the Egyptian company that operates the gas station near the airport, sees the increase in demand as “a positive sign that the use of LNG has started to develop in Tanzania”.

Amr Abushadi says his firm plans to build more plants and hopes to “repeat our success story in Egypt by helping the (Tanzanian) government make the best use of natural gas as an affordable, reliable and cleaner source of energy.”

Egypt has become a pioneer in the use of LNG on the continent: since the 1990s, about half a million cars have been converted to a dual-fuel system.

Other African countries that have approved the use of LNG for vehicles include South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Tanzanian authorities intend to roll out more infrastructure and hope to encourage more private investors to participate.

A central LNG “mother station” is being built in Dar es Salaam by TPDC, which will supply gas to smaller stations across the country.

In addition, TPDC is acquiring five mobile LNG units to be located in Dar es Salaam, as well as in the capital city of Dodom and Morogoro.

In the medium term, these measures should reduce queues, but for now, the lack of filling stations will continue to frustrate Tanzania’s LNG pioneers.