After receiving daily phone calls about fueling vehicles with compressed natural gas, Arkansas Oklahoma Gas has opened its CNG pump to the general public.
During a grand-opening celebration Tuesday, AOG President Mike Callan said the CNG station at 2100 S. Waldron Road has sold nearly 1,300 gallon equivalents to the public over the past two months.
The company has operated its CNG station privately since 1982, partly in response to the Arab oil embargo, and currently fuels 38 fleet vehicles with CNG.
AOG’s vehicles have the option of using the “slow-fill” method, plugging in to fuel up overnight.
To make the “fast-fill” pump available to the public 24 hours a day, Callan said he created an island and reconfigured the security fencing. Customers can access the station via a driveway off Waldron just south of Rogers Avenue.
For owners of cars with a CNG or bi-fuel tank, the new station provides the first public place in Arkansas to fill up with the alternative fuel.
“The state of Oklahoma has 38 to 40 public fueling stations with CNG … and it has worked to the benefit of Oklahomans,” Callan said, adding he hopes that opening AOG’s Fort Smith station will lead to more good things for Arkansas — such as the generous tax credits Oklahomans can obtain for converting gas-fueled cars to CNG.
The price for CNG on Tuesday was $1.066 per gallon equivalent, which provides similar mileage and therefore a significant savings compared to gasoline.
Tom Sewell, president of Tulsa Gas Technologies, said CNG is 90 percent cleaner than gasoline, and the CNG pumped at the Fort Smith station is from Arkansas.
“That $1.06 is going back into the food chain right here in Arkansas,” said Sewell, who manufactures CNG fuel stations and has converted more than 4,000 vehicles to CNG use over the past 20 years.
The price remains relatively stable because it’s a domestic commodity “decoupled” from oil and will not follow the extreme fluctuations of foreign oil-based fuel, he said.
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