AT&T uses CNG from AOG

AT&T is pumping CNG from AOG.

Or, in other words, AT&T is one of the first regular customers of a public compressed natural gas fueling station operated by Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp. in Fort Smith. The station was Arkansas’ first public facility.

AOG opened the station in early April and on June 7 conducted a formal grand opening of their CNG fueling station located in the AOG operations center (5030 S. S St.). The public station is open open 24 hours, 7 days a week and is self-serve with a credit/debit card reader.

The gasoline equivalent cost of compressed natural gas, based on recent natural gas commodity costs, is about $1.07 a gallon. Fuel mileage is equivalent. A CNG user buying 200 gallons of fuel a month will spend $214, while a gasoline vehicle owner with the same amount of fuel will spend — at $3.50 per gallon — $740. Annualized, that comes to a savings of $6,312, and CNG proponents also claim that natural gas motors require less maintenance.

Mike Callan, Callan, president of AOG, said about 1,300 gasoline equivalent gallons have been sold during April and May.

“That’s not a lot, but it’s certainly more than just one vehicle. … I’m happy with that start,” Callan said during the June 7 grand opening.

He’s also happy that AT&T has placed three CNG-fueled vans in the Fort Smith area. The vans arrived in Fort Smith on June 27, and are used by the company’s U-verse technicians in the Fort Smith service area. The company has a total of 56 vehicles in the area, including the 3 CNG vans.

The new vans in Fort Smith are a small part of AT&T’s $565 million plan to roll out more than 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles by 2018. Of those, 8,000 will use CNG and 7,100  will be hybrid cars. AT&T estimates the company will cut its gasoline use by 49 million gallons during the next 10 years.

AT&T also estimates that the alternative fuel fleet change, once fully deployed, will reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons — equivalent to removing emissions from more than 38,600 traditional passenger vehicles for a year.

The company would not discuss plans for adding more alternative fuel vehicles in the Fort Smith area.

“That is what gives me hope with this,” Callan said during a recent conversation about AT&T bringing the CNG vans to Fort Smith. “It’s a slow start, but it’s a start … and it’s a sign that there is a change of thinking on this issue.”

AOG officials have promoted CNG use since the early 1980s, and have been often frustrated by the on-again, off-again promotion and use of CNG.