The City of Little Rock, Ark., hosted a grand opening of its compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station on April 29. The station is equipped to service private vehicles, corporate, and government fleets as well as the City of Little Rock’s growing fleet of CNG vehicles.

The new fueling station will sell fuel to the public for $1.55 per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) and will be open 24 hours a day.  

“Our station has the capacity to service vehicles and fleets regardless of size. As governments and businesses deal with increasingly tightened budgets, the cost savings with using CNG fuel are substantial,” Little Rock Fleet Director Wendell Jones said.

Commerical fleets including PepsiCo, AT&T, and Paper Transport are expected to fuel there. 

The City of Little Rock is taking advantage of the low cost of CNG fuel with a plan to increase the number of CNG fleet vehicles. Fleet Services is currently accepting bids for the conversion of 12 gasoline-powered vehicles to CNG. These are vehicles from MY-12 to MY-14 and consist of a mixture of trucks, sedans, and SUVs.

By August, an additional eight CNG-ready vehicles will be added to various city departments. these include one Chevrolet CNG van, three Ford F-150 bi-fuel trucks, two quarter-ton CNG bi-fuel trucks, and one converted roll-off truck.

The city already has seven CNG vehicles in its fleet of 800 units.

These actions will aid in the continued reduction of the city’s fuel and maintenance budget by an estimated $200,000 annually. 

The City expects these savings to more than pay for the $1 million investment made in building the station. Grants from the Arkansas Energy Office and Southwestern Energy aided in the completion of the $1.3 million project.