Tanzania's fuel revolution is slowing down due to a lack of filling stations
The transition to motor fuel is gaining momentum in Tanzania, but a lack of filling stations means it is stuck in second gear.
Like Nigeria and other countries on the continent, Tanzania is starting to embrace compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to petrol and diesel.
It seems cleaner and better for the environment than fossil fuels, but its cheapness is the biggest draw for the 5,000 or so motorists in the East African state who have embraced the switch – mainly commercial drivers.
This represents a small proportion of Tanzanian vehicles, but the startups are paving the way for the widespread adoption of CNG – the government reportedly wants full adoption by the middle of the century.
Tanzania has huge reserves of gas under the sea and for those who fill up, CNG can cost less than half its petrol equivalent.
The potential savings are enough to persuade taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to part with around 1.5m Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to convert his three-wheeler – known locally as a bajaji – to CNG.
But now, as he has to get gas twice a day, he often spends more time waiting at a gas station in the biggest city, Dar es Salaam, than his income.
There are only four places in Tanzania's commercial space where he can fill up.
Frustrated in silence, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to fill up with fuel, but saving helps him, as he only spends 40% of what he would have spent on buying the same amount of fuel.
A line of slow moving vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station is rolling down the road. Things are orderly – there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for judges – but the irritation is palpable.
Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, who has been in line for two hours, stares at the cars in front of him as he waits for his silver truck.
Medadi Kichungo Ngoma remembers when filling up with fuel was easy [BBC]
He tells the BBC he was among the first people in the city to modify his car, which involved putting a big cylinder in the back of the car, and recalls the short queues.
“Sometimes it was necessary to call a guard to help us,” he said.
He complains that the infrastructure has not grown enough to cope with the growing demand.
This is also a statement heard at the city's major CNG filling stations near the airport.
Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka has been waiting here for three hours with his judge.
“The line is very long,” he said, adding that “we should have as many stations as there are for fuel vehicles”.
But the price consideration will keep people coming back.
“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill up my 11kg fuel tank, which goes about 180km,” said one driver who identified himself as Juma, adding that this is less than half the cost of fuel to travel the same distance. .
The CNG tank must be installed in the boot of the vehicle by an authorized fitter [BBC]
The campaign to encourage motorists to use CNG vehicles in Tanzania was started a decade ago but did not start in earnest until 2018.
Those in charge of the project admit that they did not foresee the increase in demand.
Aristides Kato, the CNG project manager at the state oil company, Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), tells the BBC that “there has been a huge increase” recently in the use of natural gas by car owners.
“We found ourselves without enough infrastructure to support the demand for vehicles that use gas,” he admits.
Authorities, however, want more people to switch to CNG because it is a hotter fuel that results in fewer emissions of all types of air pollutants, according to the UN.
And locally available natural gas should allow for cheaper prices than gasoline. But the cost of replacing a car and the lower range a full tank gives the driver compared to petrol or diesel may put some people off.
Long lines are common at the CNG airport near Dar es Salaam [BBC]
However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, the Egyptian company that manages the filling station near the airport, sees the growing demand as “a good sign that the use of CNG has started to develop in Tanzania”.
Amr Aboushady says his strong plans to build more channels and hopes to “replicate our success story in Egypt by helping [Tanzanian] the government is making better use of natural gas as an affordable, reliable, clean energy source”.
Egypt pioneered the use of CNG on the continent, with nearly half a million vehicles converted to the dual fuel system since the 1990s.
Other African countries that have approved the use of CNG in vehicles include South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.
Tanzanian authorities are committed to rolling out more infrastructure and hope to encourage more private investors to get involved.
A CNG mother station is being built in Dar es Salaam by TPDC, which will supply gas to small stations across the country.
In addition, TPDC is acquiring five mobile CNG units to be located in Dar es Salaam and the capital, Dodoma, and Morogoro.
These measures should in the medium term lead to shorter queues, but for now the lack of filling stations will continue to frustrate Tanzania's CNG pioneers.
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