• The facility is located at the service station flying the Repsol flag, and owned by Estación Servicio Galindo, at Number 4 Carretera San Vicente, next to the Sestao and Barakaldo exit roundabout to the A-8 junction.
• The facility supplies Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for cars, vars, buses and service vehicles.
• The companies have invested nearly €400,000 in the first supply point, with the support of the Basque Energy Board (EVE) though its efficient mobility grant programme.
• The Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, the Mayor of Sestao, Josu Bergara, the General Manager of the Basque Energy Board,?Íñigo Ansola, the Repsol and Nortegas CEOs, Josu Jon Imaz and Javier Contreras, respectively, and the Estación de Servicio Galindo General Manager, Nuria Lekue.
• The strategic partnership between Repsol and Nortegas will provide the general public with a network of natural gas for vehicle supply points at the Repsol Group service stations, first and foremost in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias.

Repsol and Nortegas Green Energy Solutions have today opened the first natural gas filling station with continuous CHG supply. The facility is located at the service station flying the Repsol flag, and owned by Estación Servicio Galindo, at Number 4 Carretera San Vicente, in Sestao (Bizkaia), next to the Sestao and Barakaldo exit roundabout to the A-8 junction.

The new CNG point will be able to meet the demand of light vehicles (cars and vans), as well as urban medium and heavy vehicles (delivery vans and trucks).

It will be the first station in Bizkaia to have a continuous supply of CNG, without a tank being needed, thanks to Nortegas’s extensive infrastructure that means the public can have an alternative fuel supply point.

The choice of this location is in line with the consolidation of Bilbao as a ‘strategic hub’ for low-emission refuelling along the ‘Atlantic Corridor’, which links the French border, at Irún, and Galicia. An estimated average of 37,000 vehicles a day use that route.

The companies have invested nearly €400,000 in the first supply point, with the support of the Basque Energy Board (EVE) though its efficient mobility grant programme.

This investment strengthens the commitment of Repsol, Nortegas and Estación de Servicio Galindo to natural gas for vehicles as part of their strategy to foster the use of alternative energies.

The Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, the Mayor of Sestao, Josu Bergara, the General Manager of the Basque Energy Board,?Íñigo Ansola, the Repsol and Nortegas CEOs, Josu Jon Imaz and Javier Contreras, respectively, and the Estación de Servicio Galindo General Manager, Nuria Lekue, attended the opening ceremony.

Josu Jon Imaz, the Repsol CEO, explained that Repsol has spent years working on becoming what it is today, a multi-energy company, with the aim of being net zero emission by 2050, the first in the sector to embrace this ambitious target. He went on: “We offer all services around energy and mobility to meet the needs of each user. We are going to continue to advance in all mobility solutions, with the focus fully on the customer”.

Javier Contreras, the Nortegas CEO, stressed: “We are delighted to be opening the first compressed natural gas filling station with continuous supply, connected directly to our distribution network. We are convinced of the potential of natural gas as a clean fuel that is environmentally and economically efficient. We are therefore committed to giving momentum to its use, along with partners from the sector such as Repsol.”

The Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment reiterated the commitment to sustainable mobility driven by technological neutrality and by private-public partnership in a rapid expansion of new cleaner fuel dispensers. Mobility is facing the great challenge of moving towards a less polluting model. In any event, Tapia recalled that gas continues and will continue to be our main transition resources to a scenario with greater capacity to generate other type of energies. The development of the Basque Country will only be sustainable, if, apart from making progress in the decarbonisation of the economy, we achieve responsible use of the available resources, and we maximise our technological potential by driving the economy and generating the jobs. In this regard, the digital and energy transitions are two great allies for Basque industry.

Cleaner fuel dispensers for a sector – mobility – that still has to address the great challenge of transitioning to a less polluting model.

In turn, the Mayor of Sestao, Josu Bergara, welcomed “the private and public sectors joining forces to work on environmentally friendly and clean projects in this region that has been so afflicted environmentally speaking”.

Repsol and Nortegas Partnership

Thanks to this partnership, both companies are committed to providing the public with a network of natural gas supply points, as part of the Repsol Group service stations, first and foremost in the regions where Nortegas operates as a natural gas distributor, i.e., in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias.

Repsol and Nortegas have already a further two locations where pre-building work is on the point of getting underway, one in Madrid and another in Gipuzkoa.

Natural Gas for Vehicles, another mobility alternative

NGV is an alternative fuel that is very well-suited for transport. There are two types of natural gas of vehicles, compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG). CNG is natural gas stored at high pressures, used in light vehicles and some heavy vehicles, such as buses, utility trucks and for short- and medium-distance transports. LNG is natural gas in its liquefied state and undergoes a cryogenic process at -161ºC that is used in heavy transport, as it provides a greater range.

As regards the environment, natural gas improves air quality in cities: it reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by 85%, and eliminates 96% of the particulate matter (PM) emissions. It also helps to meet CO₂ emission targets, as they are cut by up to 25% compared to traditional fuels. Those vehicles therefore hold the ECO label, awarded by the General Traffic Directorate (DGT), which exempts them from circulation restrictions in cities.

The mechanics of the natural gas engine is similar to the petrol one. In some cases, the vehicle’s engine can be modified so that it can use natural gas instead of the traditional fuel. It therefore qualifies for the ECO label. Users are thus eligible for the different benefits and advantages that increasingly more regions and municipalities are beginning to offer, such as access to controlled emission areas, discounts on taxes and car parks, etc.