Cramer: The Nat Gas Revolution Begins

[mainer29]

When we look at the tipping point as to what caused U. S. trucking companies to switch from diesel to liquefied natural gas en masse, it will be an odd one. Indeed, it will be when the oil bottleneck in Cushing, Okla. , was eliminated and West Texas Intermediate rose to the world crude price, instead of the world crude price coming down. That, combined with the mass production of the 12-liter Cummins CMI truck engine, will have made LNG too cheap not to switch to it.

That's what Sam Thomas, the CEO of Chart Industries GTLS -- which is at the heart of the natural gas revolution -- told me when we chatted Tuesday night. Those two events simply made the whole deal too economic to not do. That price differential eliminated any hope, in the minds of the big shippers, that diesel would come down enough to render it reasonable to stick to it vs. a fuel half its price. Truckers, after all, would now be relying on Cummins to produce the engine that burns it. Reliability and inexpensive fuel made a value proposition come true, and without any government monkeying around the subsidies needed.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cramer-nat-gas-revolution-begins-110200998.html



Natural Gas Engines

http://www.cummins.com/cmi/navigati...Id=1&nodeName=Natural+Gas+Engines&menuId=1050

 

[Bill Stockard]

Natural gas for OTR trucks sounds good, but it isn't practical. . Natural gas has a lower BTU rating than diesel fuel, gasoline, and/or LP gas which means much more fuel consumption per mile. How about the fuel tank weight penalty? High pressure CNG fuel tanks large enough to furnish an OTR trucks fuel for any distance are heavy and expensive. Natural gas may be an alternative for stationary operations, but not practical for large OTR trucks traveling any distance.

Bill

 

[moparguy]

Bill, I do hear what you're saying. Back when i was in the natgas biz we did conversions and fueling stations for CNG in passanger cars and trucks. The next big thing back then (1997) was LNG for over the road trucks and locomotives. Several class 8 rigs were running LNG as test/demonstrative rigs. I suspect that with the cheap gas available today, it's more than competitive on a cost per btu cost per mile basis even when factoring (as you correctly mentioned) the lower energy density. LNG tanks carry much more fuel for a given size than standard 3,600 or higher CNG tanks. Fact is, LNG is the only way natural gas makes sense for otr companies.