Editor’s Note: This updates an earlier version of this story.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. said it is investing $150 million in Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to develop about 150 natural gas fueling stations for heavy-duty trucks at truck stops along U.S. interstate highways.
The money will back stations on key truck routes, primarily at Pilot Flying J Travel Centers, and in local commercial zones, Greg Roche, Clean Energy’s vice president of national accounts and infrastructure, told Transport Topics.
The investment — designed to provide a low-cost, low-carbon domestic alternative to diesel fuel for heavy-duty truck use — will be made in three equal $50 million disbursements, Chesapeake said in a statement. The next two are planned for June 2012 and June 2013.
Clean Energy will use the investment to accelerate its build-out of liquefied natural gas fueling infrastructure across U.S. interstates, creating the foundation of what it called “America’s Natural Gas Highway System.”
Seal Beach, Calif.-based Clean Energy is North America’s largest provider of natural gas fuels for the transportation market, Reuters reported.
Incorporated as Pickens Fuel Corp. in 1997 and reincorporated as Clean Energy four years later, Clean Energy owns, operates or supplies about 224 U.S. natural gas fueling stations, Reuters said.
Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon said in a statement the company intends “to take full advantage of the associated cost savings and emissions reductions by accelerating the conversion of all 4,500 of Chesapeake’s light duty and 400 of our heavy-duty fleet vehicles to run on [compressed natural gas], which will reduce our fuel costs by an estimated $15 million to $20 million per year.”
