Frustration in the queues holding up a fuel revolution

The petrol revolution is growing in Tanzania, but the lack of petrol stations means it is stuck in second gear.

Like Nigeria and other countries on the continent, Tanzania has started to embrace compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of petrol and diesel.

It looks cleaner and better for the environment than fossil fuel, but its lower cost is a big draw for the roughly 5,000 drivers in East Africa who have adopted the switch – mostly commercial drivers.

This represents a small percentage of Tanzanian vehicles, but early adopters are preparing for the official CNG system – the government says it aims for full implementation by mid-year.

Tanzania has huge reserves of natural gas under the sea and for those who fill it, CNG can cost less than half of its oil.

The potential savings were enough to persuade taxi owner Samuel Amos Irube to part with 1.5m Tanzanian shillings ($620; £495) to convert his three-wheeler – called a bajaji – to CNG.

But now, since he has to get the fuel twice a day, he usually spends more time waiting at the gas station in the biggest city of Dar es Salaam, than he earns money.

There are only four positions in the commercial sector in Tanzania that can be filled.

Quietly frustrated, he says he has to wait at least three hours every time he wants to refuel, but the savings are worth it, as he only uses 40% of what he would on the same fuel.

Slow-moving lines of vehicles at the Ubungo CNG station line the road. Things are organized – there are three clear lines, one for cars and two for bajaji – but his anger is palpable.

Medadi Kichungo Ngoma, who has been in line for two hours already, looks at the cars in front of her as she waits in her silver car.

He tells the BBC that he was one of the first people in the city to change his car, which included putting a big cylinder in the back of the pickup, and reminding of the short queues.

He said: “Sometimes a servant had to be called to serve us.

He complains that the infrastructure has not been developed to match the increasing demand.

This is also the refrain heard at the city’s CNG filling station near the airport.

Sadiki Christian Mkumbuka has been waiting here for three hours with his badge.

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

But the price consideration keeps people coming back.

“I pay 15,000 shillings ($6; £5) to fill up my 11kg of gas, which goes about 180km,” said a driver who gave his name as Juma, adding that the price is less than half the price of petrol to travel the same distance. .

The push to encourage motorists to buy CNG powered vehicles in Tanzania started a decade ago but did not take off in earnest until 2018.

Project managers admit they were unaware of the rapid rise of the project.

Aristides Kato, CNG project manager at the state-owned 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 that we don’t have enough resources to support the demand for gas-powered cars,” he admits.

Officials, however, want more people to switch to CNG because it is an environmentally friendly fuel that reduces almost all types of air pollutants, according to the UN.

In addition, locally sourced natural gas should allow for cheaper prices than gasoline. But the cost of replacing a car combined with the lower mileage that a full tank gives a motorist compared to petrol or diesel may turn some people off.

However, the country manager of Taqa Arabia, an Egyptian company that runs a filling station near the airport, sees the growing demand as “a good sign that the CNG project is starting to grow in Tanzania”.

Amr Aboushady says he wants to build more stations and hopes to “repeat our success story in Egypt by helping [Tanzanian] the government makes good use of natural gas as a cheap, reliable, clean source of electricity”.

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 CNG for vehicles include South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique and Ethiopia.

Tanzanian officials are committed to building more infrastructure and hope to encourage investors to take action.

A central CNG “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 purchasing five CNG units that will be located in Dar es Salaam and the capital, Dodoma, and Morogoro.

These methods should lead to shorter lines, but for now the lack of filling stations continues to frustrate Tanzanian CNG pioneers.