August 20, 2021. Carriers from three cooperatives (City of Machala, Oroconti and Multioro) in the Ecuadorian province of El Oro, which bring together 500 passenger transport units, support an innovative alternative to eliminate the fuel subsidy problem. This is a pilot scheme to switch from diesel to natural gas, which would allow buses to run on much cheaper fuel and would no longer require a subsidy.
The initiative is being pushed by a councilor from the Municipality of Machala, Alex Díaz, who through a letter addressed to President Guillermo Lasso asked him to support the transition to natural gas vehicles. According to Díaz, a World Bank study shows that Ecuador burns more gas than Qatar and Brazil, which produce more oil, and he advises making efforts to take advantage of natural gas from the Gulf of Guayaquil and Santa Elena, and the associated one that burns, in lighters, in the Amazon.
Díaz explained that, since 2016, conflicts have been generated in his city over transport rates and subsidies, but that as of 2019, with the generated upheaval, solutions began to be sought. On the one hand, it was analyzed to change the units to electric buses, but it was too expensive.
Afterwards, the modification of the system to natural gas was studied. For Díaz there are several factors that can facilitate this process. The first is that the Bajo Alto liquefaction plant that Petroecuador has burns about 2 million cubic feet a day. That volume would be equivalent to supplying fuel to about 500 vehicles in a month.
He explains that the issue of targeting diesel, which is currently being discussed in the country, is not easy, since 70% of consumers are transporters. In this sense, he said that the request to the Government is to allow the use of natural gas in urban buses, which will allow maintaining rates in transportation.
