CNG will increase by 14% this weekend and will accumulate a 65% increase in one year

The compressed natural gas (CNG) sold at gas stations will increase this Saturday 14.3% in the city of Buenos Aires and the cubic meter will increase from 14 to 16 pesos.

The CNG price update responds to a 28% increase in the value of gas at the wellhead that the vending machines will pay.

With this new adjustment, fuel accumulates an increase of 65% in one year, a percentage similar to the increases already recorded by gasoline and diesel.

Despite this, vehicle conversions rose in October to 71.3% year-on-year. The level of transfers is related not only to the cyclical rise in liquid fuels, but also to the scale of the economic crisis, which led to a 5% drop in naphtha sales in September, with go up to 28%. premium fuels.

Although at the beginning of the year, conversions accounted for only 30% of one year on the other, they are still far from the worst recent figures. According to official Enargas statistics, in October 2002, 29,468 CNG conversions were recorded.

GNC Chamber of Expenders businessman Pedro Gonzalez told the Surtidores site that the price of gasoline for cars will remain stable until May 1, when a new renegotiation between paper manufacturers and their resellers.

He also pointed out that it was "the only sector not to be dollarized", in contrast to the sale of gasoline and diesel which found its course again in 2018.

However, in the city of Buenos Aires, CNG will still be about 55% cheaper than liquid fuels. This difference is not verified in the rest of the country: Chubut already has the prices that will govern from next Saturday in the federal capital and, in the most extreme case, the highest values ​​in Argentina are in the province from Santiago del Estero, where one cubic meter of CNG costs $ 23.15 at the service stations.

Although in the past CNG has been badociated with taxis, this type of vehicle represents only 0.9% of the total fleet of cars using this fuel. In October, there were 14,691 taxis running on CNG out of a total of 1.6 million vehicles.

According to industry sources, savings per kilometer would be about $ 1.70 compared to liquid fuels.

TheGas demand for CNG stations accounts for about 5% of the total system. Argentine producers transport about 130 million cubic meters of gas per day (6 million cubic meters) per day, while between 6 and 7 million cubic meters are needed to supply the CNG stations. At specific times in winter, when gas is scarce on the coldest days, distributors cut supply so as not to interrupt the service provided to households (priority demand).

The sector experienced a critical point in 2016 when, with the arrival of Change in Government, gasoline prices were increased and, for a few months, the difference between the suppliers of CNG and naphtha was been reduced. However, liquid fuels have a less regulated market and the possibility of applying increases when companies decide (unlike the CNG sector, which has relatively fixed costs and the price of the regulated raw material), the CNG is back live a boom starting in 2018.

Even then, industry sources claim that the sale of GNC has never ceased to be a business, as opposed to the "sanction" inflicted on consumer pockets throughout this year.

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