Turkey has the second largest autogas market in the world after South Korea, the result of spectacular growth in consumption since the end of the 1990's when a ban on autogas vehicles was lifted, according to the latest report of The European LPG Association (AEGPL) on Tuesday.
The AEGPL and the World LPG Association launched a new report entitled Autogas Incentive Policies, which reports that consumption of autogas overtook that of gasoline consumption in 2009, making Turkey the only country in the world where autogas sales are bigger than those of gasoline.
The report said that autogas consumption has more than doubled since 2010 in Turkey, reaching 3.14 million tonnes in 2016.
According to the report, autogas meets an estimated 14 percent of the country’s total demand for automotive fuels and accounts for three-quarters of Turkey’s total LPG consumption, 77 percent of which is met by imports.
The report showed that two of the three largest consumers - Turkey and Russia - saw the biggest increases in autogas consumption in absolute terms over the ten years to 2016, while the biggest falls occurred in Mexico, Australia, Japan and South Korea - still the world’s largest autogas consumer.
The report noted that the primary reason why governments in many countries actively encourage the use of autogas and other alternative fuels is the environment.
'Autogas outperforms gasoline and, especially, diesel, as well as some other alternative fuels in the majority of studies comparing environmental performance that have been conducted around the world,' it said.
'With respect to greenhouse gas emissions, autogas performs better than gasoline and, according to some studies, outperforms diesel, when emissions are measured on a full fuel-cycle basis and when the LPG is sourced mainly from natural gas processing plants,' it further said.
However, it warned that in practice the strength of actual policies and measures deployed does not always fully reflect the true environmental benefits of switching to autogas from conventional automotive fuels.
Worldwide, autogas currently accounts for 1.2 percent of total road transport fuel consumption.
The report added that there are close to 27 million autogas vehicles in use around the world and over 76,000 refueling sites.
In 2016, South Korea consumed 3.5 million tonnes of autogas in the country that has 2.2 million autogas vehicles. South Korea also has around 2,000 refueling sites.
Turkey consumed around 3.14 million tonnes of autogas, had 4.44 million vehicles and 10,426 refueling sites last year.
The third biggest consumer Russia consumed 3.05 million tonnes of autogas with 3 million vehicles and 4,900 refueling sites.
Global consumption of autogas has been rising steadily in recent years, reaching 26.7 million tonnes in 2016 – an increase of 283,000 tonnes, or 1.1 percent, over 2015 and 3.7 million tonnes, or 16 percent, up on 2000.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr