Chesapeake Energy, Love’s opens first CNG station in the Panhandle

July 29, 2012

Scott Minton of Chespeake Energy shows a Compressed Natural Gas pump at Love’s in downtown Guymon on Thursday. The CNG pump is the first of its kind for public use on the Oklahoma Panhandle. Staff photo/Shawn Yorks

The Love’s convenience store and gas station has a slightly new image, thanks to Compressed Natural Gas. They have partnered with Chesapeake Energy and have now placed a CNG pump at the Love’s location at Highway 54 and Main in Guymon, and many, including the Guymon Ambassadors, Chesapeake Energy members, Senator Bryce Marlatt, and Rep. Gus Blackwell, gathered together on Thursday to discuss and celebrate this addition to the community.
Scott Minton, Market Development Specialist for Natural Gas vehicles for Chesapeake Energy explained the details and benefits of this addition to the Love’s gas station.  
The station is the first fueling location to offer CNG in Guymon. In December 2011, Love’s committed to opening at least 10 CNG fueling stations in 2012 to increase CNG accessibility across the state.
“As more corporate and government entities convert their fleets and consumer demand for natural gas vehicles grows, Love’s wants to be ready to meet the needs of our customers,” said Jenny Love Meyer, Love’s Vice President of Communications. “We are proud to offer another fueling option by providing CNG in Guymon.”
This year, in addition to the Guymon location, Love’s plans to open CNG stations in Altus, Chickasha, Guthrie, Lawton, Norman, Okemah, Oklahoma City (two locations) and Pauls Valley. These 10 new CNG stations bring Love’s CNG infrastructure count to 11 and gives Oklahoma more than 70 public CNG stations. Love’s opened its first CNG fueling station in 2011 in Kingfisher where several companies, including Chesapeake, operate CNG fleet vehicles. CNG currently sells for $1.79 per gallon equivalent, making it a less expensive fueling option for consumer and fleet vehicles alike.
“On behalf of Chesapeake, we are proud to partner with Love’s to open Guymon’s first CNG station,” said Minton at the opening. “As Oklahoma-based companies, we hope to increase the use of clean, affordable, Oklahoma-produced natural gas as a transportation fuel and further support an industry so important to our state.”
Minton presented many facts to help describe the foundation of CNG.
He said the U.S. consumes 23 percent of the world’s petroleum and by 2020, the IEA predicts world oil consumption will increase 60 percent.
“That means in the next eight years, we are going to have to find four more Saudi Arabias just to supply the World’s oil demand,” said Minton. “But, in order to do that, how much money is it going to cost? It is about 350 billion dollars per year that will have to be invested in order to keep up with demand for World oil production.”
As an alternative, Natural Gas is becoming more of a commodity throughout the World, and is clean, safe, and powerful. Compressed Natural Gas is Natural Gas that is compressed, typically to 3,600 PSI, for dispensing and storage. The gas is distributed through natural gas pipeline to the fuel location and gas is compressed at fuel location into CNG for dispensing into the vehicle. Dispensing is similar to gasoline or diesel fuel and the CNG is stored on the vehicle in one or more cylinders.
“20 years ago, we estimated that there was about a 20-30 years supply of gas underneath our feet,” said Minton. “Today, we estimate between 100 and 200 years of Natural Gas.”
It contains mostly methane, only one carbon atom and reduces particulate matter by up to 95%. It has a higher ignition temperature than diesel or gasoline which ends up being between 1,000 to 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit and the HD natural gas engines have equivalent torque and horsepower to diesel counterparts.
He then went on to describe the benefits of Natural Gas Vehicles. There are 15 million NGVs being used worldwide, with only 120,000 of those being used in the U.S. Many fleets, being transit buses, trucks, school buses, medium and light duty vehicles, have begun to adopt this method of transportation. Not only are NGVs quiet, but the fuel and maintenance costs are considerably lower than that of the gasoline vehicles that most of the nation drives.
“With CNG being half the price of gasoline or diesel, we have the opportunity to save a lot of money at the pump,” said Minton. “It’s not always the right thing to do to convert to Natural Gas, but I guarantee if you’ve got guys driving 3,000 miles a month, I’ve got a pretty good case for why those vehicles should be converted to Natural Gas.”
Minton explained that fleet vehicles being converted to Natural Gas vehicles are the ultimate change to save money. With the amount they save on gas, the cost of the conversion process is nothing to worry about.
Aside from being cost effective, the production of Natural Gas and the placement of pumps gradually increasing throughout the state of Oklahoma and the rest of the country has created many new jobs. As the demand increases, more jobs will become available.
Minton and the Chesapeake team, as well as others who came to join in on Guymon’s newest addition held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Love’s located on Highway 54 and Main and were pleased to present the newest cost effective and growing commodity of Natural Gas.
State Senator Bryce Marlatt attended the grand opening to show his support for increasing access to CNG both locally and across the country.
“The opening of Guymon’s first CNG fueling station is important because it offers our residents the opportunity to power their vehicles with a local resource that is important to Oklahoma’s economy,” said Sen. Bryce Marlatt. “I hope Love’s commitment to CNG serves as a model for other retailers across the country to offer this alternative fuel to their customers.”
State Representative Gus Blackwell was also in attendance. He added, “I am proud to celebrate this station opening in Guymon, and for our city to now be part of Oklahoma’s extensive network of CNG stations. We thank Love’s and Chesapeake for offering a fuel that burns cleaner and is more affordable than gasoline.”

Shawn Yorks contributed to this report