GE, Chesapeake to collaborate on US natural gas fueling infrastructure
By BEN FOX RUBIN
General Electric (GE) and natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy said Wednesday that they will work together to develop new infrastructure to accelerate the adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel.
Their agreement comes as many US automakers are ramping up plans to introduce natural-gas powered pickup trucks to catch a growing wave of interest in the fuel alternative amid booming gasoline prices.
Natural gas prices have continued to drop amid growing US production thanks to new drilling techniques, including hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.
The cleaner-burning fuel has already been eating into coal's market share for power plants.
But the biggest hurdle to natural gas's wider use in vehicles is refueling. Today there are fewer than 400 public compressed natural gas fueling stations in the US.
GE and Chesapeake are looking to use GE's oil and gas technologies with Chesapeake's natural-gas knowledge base to lower the ownership and operational cost of natural-gas vehicle fueling stations.
Starting in the fall, GE plans to provide more than 250 modular CNG fueling stations to build a new core infrastructure.
CNG is most commonly used in light- to medium-duty vehicles such as pickups, vans, SUVs, taxicabs, transit buses, refuse and delivery trucks as well as consumer vehicles.
The companies are also looking to expand use of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is commonly used for heavy-duty industrial purposes.
Dow Jones Newswires
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