About EASTSIB
The deliveries are made as part of the company’s program for the transition to the use of NGV fuel.
RNG implements a program to convert its vehicle fleet to gas engines: equipment operating on conventional fuel is being re-equipped to use compressed natural gas. The transition is due to economic reasons and environmental characteristics of the fuel.
The company has been using MAN all-wheel drive tractors as part of road trains for various purposes since 2015, and the company began purchasing equipment from the Chinese manufacturer Shacman at the end of 2019. At present, RNG JSC operates 4 tractors of this brand and recently has received an experimental Shacman dump truck. It uses compressed up to 200 atm. gas as fuel which possesses greater frost resistance, that has been repeatedly confirmed during the operation of vehicles at critically low temperatures.
The company expects to receive a new mobile steam production unit (MSPU) from the Russian manufacturer UZST in January 2021. This is an autonomous unit for heating water and producing steam, that is necessary in various technological processes in the oil and gas field. The MSPU uses compressed natural gas as fuel, both on the chassis engine and in the burner of the unit boiler.
RNG plans to expand its NGV vehicle fleet through Chinese and domestic supplies.
“We appreciated the advantage of using gas instead of gasoline and diesel: if we do not take into account the costs of installing gas equipment, fuel costs have been significantly reduced, because methane is almost half price of regular gasoline. RNG produces natural gas on its own, which means there is no need to import it. The cost of logistics and storage of fuel is reduced, in addition, it is always of stable quality”, said Chief Engineer of RNG, Evgeniy Cherykaev.
The government of Yakutia supports the use of environment-friendly fuel and expects to expand the network of gas filling stations. Andrey Portnyagin, Deputy Head of the Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Geology of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), emphasized: “The development of gas filling infrastructure will make it possible to actively popularize one of the key advantages of using natural gas – decreasing pollutant emissions.”
RNG also contributes to the distribution of NGV fuel. For example the company’s employees took part in the motor rally “From St. Petersburg to Mirny on natural gas” in 2020, covering the distance from Lensk to Mirny. The event, supported by the government of the republic, was aimed at demonstration of the superiority of gas fuel over traditional fuel. In addition, the event brought practical benefits: the statistical data collected by the participants will help improve the gas filling infrastructure in the region.
