2015-10-31
Natural Gas is really going to save Venezuela? I don't think so.
The seemingly-Nazi government of Venezuela had ambitious plans to increase the usage of Natural Gas as an automobile fuel in the domestic market in order to save cash from the subsidies currently applied to keep the prices of petrol and Diesel fuel artificially low and leave more crude oil and its byproducts to be exported at international market prices and put some dollars in the crippled Venezuelan economy. Installation of CNG fuel systems, dubbed "dual fuel system", is sponsored by the local oil & gas company PDVSA for both public service and private vehicles, either retrofits in used vehicles or OEM installations at importers and the few local auto manufacturing plants that are still active. It's a country that imports about 80% of all the food it consumes, and already facing scarcity of staple items such as bread, and even McDonald's had to replace Argentinian potatoes with locally-sourced cassava roots to keep the McFries available. Meanwhile, the dictator Nicolas Maduro set an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to supply Hamas with all the Diesel fuel it is going to need to keep its terrorist attacks against Israel. Well, any reasonably-minded person can agree that it would make more sense to support the few heroes who insist to develop the agriculture in Venezuela, not just to provide food to their fellow countrymen but due to the potential to develop a range of low-complexity alternative fuels too. And why not shoehorn some Isuzu 4JA1, 4JB1 or 4BC2 into those landyachts that are all around with their boat-anchor V8 engines thirsty for some petrol?
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Due to the amount of sulphur in the Venezuelan Diesel fuel, many regional export markets are seeking some replacement for it. For example, Bolivia has converted most of its public transport vehicles to CNG, and Paraguay now imposes a higher quality control of the imported fuel shipments to ensure it meets their standards. PDVSA installations look basically like scrapyards, as the maintenance has been neglected since their "nationalization".
Regarding the engines, even though a V8 is actually cool, sure it's overkill for many of the old beaters roaming around Venezuelan roads, but the retrofit of a CNG kit is still deemed cheaper in short term instead of an engine swap.
BTW your opinion about the Venezuelan dictatorship sounds very accurate. Maduro looks like a sudaca version of Hitler.
It's a shame that we don't have any support to raise our cattle and crops, or the chance to get a 4JB1 to drop into our landyachts. Meanwhile, the cimarrón Maduro gives away some Diesel fuel to Hamas and the "palestinian authority" scumbags.
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