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8
th
BLUE CORRIDOR
RALLY
7-31 October 2014
MEDIA GUIDE
From 7 to 31 October 2014, Blue Corridor supporters from Gazprom and E.ON will drive a
caravan of natural gas vehicles (NGVs) from St. Petersburg, Russia around the Baltc states with
stops in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croata, Serbia, Hungary,
and Belarus to demonstrate the benefts of using natural gas in transportaton.
We hope you can join us along the 6,600 kilometre route for roundtable discussions with
industry representatves, policy-makers, environmentalists and car enthusiasts to learn about
the benefts of natural gas in transportaton as an environmentally-friendly and safe alternatve
to petrol. These events will also provide the opportunity to check out NGVs on display and to
tour an NGV factory.
For updates from the road, head to Blue Corridors social media propertes:
Website: bluecorridor.org
Twiter: twiter.com/BlueCorridor
Read on for further details about the 2014 Blue Corridor NGV Rally, the benefts of natural gas
and how NGVs are changing the future of transportaton.
We look forward to seeing you!
1
Welcome to the 8
th
Blue Corridor
Natural Gas Vehicle Rally!
Media contact: bluecorridor@gpluseurope.com
Organised by
Supported by
2
Gazprom and E.ON, supported by a number of other natural
gas companies, vehicle manufacturers, and NGV associatons,
will drive the 8th Blue Corridor Rally across Europe to showcase
the benefts of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.
Round-table expert discussions will be held in Tartu, Riga,
Vilnius, Poznan, Plzen, Nuremberg, Milan, Ljubljana, Zagreb,
Belgrade, Novy Sad, Budapest, Minsk, and Moscow where
representatves of the gas and car industries, politcians,
ecologists, and motor fans will be able to share their views on
the various aspects of the developing NGV market in Europe.
The events will put the spotlight on Europes move towards
cleaner, safer, and more afordable mobility, focusing on
the advantages of natural gas in on-land and sea transport
including recommendatons for the future.
Now on its 8th tour, the rally was developed to encourage the
further expansion of the natural gas fuelling infrastructure
needed to create natural gas highways or blue corridors
across Europe. This infrastructure would empower drivers and
feet owners to purchase NGVs by ensuring that they can drive
them anywhere.
Since the Blue Corridor Rallys incepton, the use of natural
gas in transportaton has grown signifcantly. When the frst
rally was held in 2008, there were 9.5 million NGVs around the
world. This number has more than doubled to over 20 million
in 2014, with roughly 8% (1.67 million) of those vehicles driving
on European roads. Last year, the global NGV feet consumed
well over 30bcm of gas.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers
Associaton (ACEA), the number of manufactured cars in
Europe has been decreasing for six years in a row. However,
the number of manufactured CNG vehicles in Europe has
contnuously increased over the same period. According to
the Internatonal Gas Union (IGU), 50 million NGVs could be
on the road worldwide by 2020, by 2030 this could be up to
100 million NGVs. Yet, the need to further expand the market
remains.
Increasing the number of NGVs on the road in Europe could
beneft the region for several reasons:
Natural Gas is Clean: Driving NGVs benefts the
environment because natural gas-powered engines emit
25% less CO2 compared to petrol. Therefore, increasing the
number of NGVs in Europe would help reaching the EUs
target of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre as the average
level of emissions for the new car feet by 2020.
Natural Gas is Afordable: Natural gas is the cheapest fuel. It
allows drivers to save at least 30% on fuel costs compared to
diesel or petrol. In the current economic climate, this kind of
savings could have a monumental impact. One can drive an
Opel Zafra Tourer NGV for 201 kilometres paying only 10 on
natural gas. For this money a similar vehicle can travel 169 km
on LPG, 148 km on diesel, and only 97 km on petrol.
Natural Gas is Safe: Natural gas is proven to be the
safest transportaton fuel worldwide. Compared to other
transportaton fuels natural gas needs higher temperatures and
concentratons to ignite.
Natural Gas is Abundant: According to the IGU, current natural
gas reserves will last for at least another 250 years, whereas
those of conventonal oil may last only 80 100 years. Both
compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefed natural gas (LNG)
can be used in on-road and high horse-power vehicles, rail
locomotves, and marine ships almost anywhere in the world.
The Blue Corridor Rally: Encouraging Natural Gas
as a Transportation Fuel for Europe
Photo Caption: Gazprom supports NGV development around the world.
Gazprom believes that natural gas has a unique blend of undisputable advantages over other
transportaton fuels. As the worlds largest natural gas producer, we are working to reliably supply
natural gas to consumers, feet owners, and municipalites because we recognise the environmental,
social, business, and economic benefts of developing this market.
Gazprom has initatves underway to expand natural gas infrastructure and promote the use of NGVs
in Russia and beyond. Gazprom Export the companys global trading arm coordinates corporate
NGV actvites of over 40 diferent Gazproms afliates in almost all parts of our planet.
This is why Gazprom is supportng the Blue Corridor Rally, forming partnerships with car companies,
environmental organisatons, energy majors, and foreign governments around the world to bolster
the future of natural gas.
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Gazproms Vision for Natural
Gas in Transport
Photo capton: Blue Corridor Rally 2013
Photo capton: Blue Corridor Rally 2013
RUSSIA St. Petersburg, Moscow
The NGV market in Russia is developing. There are
about 90,000 NGVs and 256 flling statons across the country. The
Russian authorites are commited to further expanding the NGV
market. In May 2013, Russia adopted natural gas transport fuel
targets for 2020 aimed at promotng the use of gas as a fuel for road
and public transport. In order to strongly boost the NGV market, the
Russian authorites proposed to extend an ofcial programme to
procure NGVs and to suspend the transportaton tax for gas vehicles.
By 2020 50% of municipal buses, 30% of communal trucks and 20% of
agricultural machines will use natural gas instead of diesel. Gazprom
has recently announced it had aunched cooperaton programmes
to develop NGVs with several Russian automakers including KAMAZ,
Avtovaz and Gaz Group. Major Russian oil companies such as Gazprom
Nef and Rosnef have also developed programmes to build natural
gas flling statons in the country, contributng to the steady growth in
the Russia NGV market in the near future. The dedicated company -
Gazprom gas engine fuel LLC - has been established to develop natonal
CNG and LNG flling infrastructure.
ESTONIA Tartu
The Estonian feet currently has 194 NGVs, up 82% from 2011. There
are four refuelling statons in Estonia, all operated by natonal gas
provider Eest Gaas A.S. The newest staton opened in Prnu in March
2013 and plans to build 2 new refuelling statons are underway.
Additonally, the Tartu City Administraton recently introduced fve CNG
buses to its feet. For now, there are no LNG storage facilites in Estonia.
However, the constucton of the frst LNG terminal has been approved.
Latvia Riga
While there were over 500 NGVs in 2008, Latvia currently has one of
the smallest NGV feets in Europe, with over 20 NGVs, accompanied
by one fxed and one mobile refuelling staton. Follozing EU strategy,
Latvian politcians and transport managers began investgatng the
transiton from oil to CNG and LNG.
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2014 Blue Corridor NGV Rally Stops
Photo capton: Blue Corridor Rally 2013
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LITHUANIA Vilnius
Lithuanias NGV market is gradually
developing. The country built its
frst NGV refuelling staton in 2008 and currently
has four refuelling statons providing service for
200 NGVs. Lithuanian cites, including the capital
of Vilnius, as well as Kaunas and Klaipeda, are
expanding their feets with gas-fuelled vehicles such
as buses.
POLAND Warsaw,
Poznan, Lublin
Poland has a growing NGV market, with 3,392
NGVs and 47 refuelling statons. Poland was the
frst European country to test LNG-fuelled buses
in 2012 in Warsaw and other cites, showing
great interest in the technology, resultng in deals
for purchase of LNG-fuelled buses for Olsztyn and
Warsaw in 2013. A lack of government incentves
to invest in or adapt NGVs as well as missing
refuelling statons pose a challenge for Poland.
For that reason, large feet operators investng in
NGVs tend to do so only in partnership with large
gas suppliers. The biggest CNG-fuelled bus feet in
Poland belongs to MPK Rzeszow, one of the frst
operators to convert their feet, in cooperaton
with PGNiG. MPK Rzeszow is currently planning
to introduce more NGVs, substantally increasing
the share of NGVs in its feet, which is currently
at 20%. Moreover, PGNiG, the Czech Gas
Associaton, other gas companies, and trade
organisatons from Poland and the Czech
Republic have agreed to develop a green line
between Wroclaw, in South-Western Poland, and
Prague with natural gas-fuelled buses. PGNiG is
also planning to build a natural gas terminal near
Gdansk by 2013.
The Czech Republic is certain to be a rapidly
developing NGV market. There are already 53
public CNG flling statons in operaton (March
2014) and more than 7,000 natural gas vehicles.
At least 45 new fuelling sites will be in service
by the end of 2014; E.ON plans to open 12
14 flling statons, Vemex at least 10, Vtkovice
intends to build more than 20, and RWE plans
to open three. Within three years nearly 90
CNG flling statons will be opened in the Czech
Republic.
Czech transport companies tend to opt for
CNG buses, as this saves them tens of millions
of Czech Koruna (CZK) per year. The Czech
Environment Ministry announced a large
subsidy totalling 1 billion CZK destned for three
Czech regions to replace the oldest buses with
a new environmentally-friendly CNG feet. This
subsidy also supports the constructon of new
CNG flling statons. The Czech Gas Associaton
welcomes this subsidy, which will cover up to
85% of the actual price.
The number of registered CNG vehicles is on
the increase here too. NGVs are bought by
important 3.Czech companies such as esk
pota (Czech Post), Hasisk zchrann sbory
(Czech Fire Service) and the Mstsk Policie
(Municipal Police), while other frms buy CNG
fork-lif trucks for their warehouses, etc.
GERMANY
Nuremberg
With more than 900 natural gas statons and
around 96,000 gas-powered vehicles in 2014,
Germany is one of the most advanced countries in
Europe regarding natural gas mobility development.
However, the market is far from reaching maturity,
as NGVs account for only 0.3% of the entre car feet.
According to the German Energy Agency (DENA),
the demand for natural gas as a transport fuel has
increased by 60% in the frst half of 2013 compared
to the previous year and is expected to contnue
growing. The Initatve for Natural-Gas-Based
Mobility (Initatve Erdgasmobilitt), coordinated
by both the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building
and Urban Development (BMVBS) and the German
Energy Agency, has set an ambitous target of 1.4
million NGVs and 550,000 commercial vehicles
by 2020. The initatve brings together vehicle
manufacturers, such as Daimler and Opel, flling
statons operators (BP, Shell), gas producers
(Gazprom Germania), and vehicle customers
associatons.
To meet this challenge, German car manufacturers
have announced the expansion ofheir car feet.
Mercedes-Benz currently ofers two CNG passenger
car models and aims to increase its ofer, VW will
expand its portolio with the introducton of the
new Golf VII, and Audi will also enter the market by
launching the A4 in 2014. The number of natural
gas flling statons will rise from the current 920 to
1,300 by 2020. Last but not least, the number of
new innovatve mobility projects is rising, especially
in the public transportaton sector, with more than
100 German cites operatng 1,500 natural gas-
fuelled buses.

CZECH REPUBLIC Plzen
Austria is an established market for NGVs. In June 2013 the number
of NGVs in Austria stood at 7,717. There are 205 refuelling statons in
Austria, 175 of which are public. In 2013 1,000 new CNG cars were
registered in Austria. Austria is currently the absolute champion in
terms of the number of CNG flling statons compared to the size of the
country, therewith ofering the best CNG coverage in Europe. CNG cars
are subject to reduced tax on new cars. At present, pure biomethane
is available at three out of 180 natural gas flling statons. Overall,
biomethane currently accounts for about 3% of the total methane used
in Austrian NGVs. There is currently no LNG supplied to the Austrian
market.
Italy stands as the dominant NGV naton in Europe and the seventh
largest by vehicle numbers worldwide. The total number of NGVs in
July 2013 stood at 823,000 amountng to more than 4% of the global
NGV feet. There are 1022 refuelling statons in Italy, 967 of which
are public. In 2013 the number of registered CNG vehicles in Italy
increased by 29% compared to 2012. CNG vehicles in Italy are widely
used in cargo transportaton, waste collecton, and school transport.
In April 2014 Eni opened the frst LNG refuelling staton for heavy duty
vehicles in Piacenza. Italy shows also enormous potental in convertng
fshing boats, yachts, and passenger ferries to LNG-fuelled vehicles
While the Slovenian NGV market is stll in its infancy, in June 2013 there
were 48 registered CNG vehicles in Slovenia, including 20 buses. There
are six refuelling statons in Slovenia. In May 2014 Chairman of the
Gazprom Management Commitee Alexey Miller and CEO of Slovenian
automaton, communicatons and power generaton company Comita
Danilo Durakovic discussed the possibility of setng up a joint venture
aimed at comprehensively developing the natural gas vehicle sector.
Croata is an emerging NGV market with 155 NGVs as of May 2013. 71
gas-fuelled buses drive on the roads of the country. There are only two
refuelling statons in Croata, both are public.
In September 2013 Gazprom and state-owned LNG Croata, signed a
Roadmap to implement projects for natural gas use as a vehicle fuel in
the Republic of Croata. The document defnes the priority acton plan
for Gazprom to cooperate with Croatan transportaton companies and
logistc operators as part of the pilot projects for municipal bus feets
conversion in Croata.
Serbias NGV market fnds itself in a relatvely early stage, but is
gradually developing. The Serbian feet currently has about 840 NGVs
and nine refuelling statons.
In 2012 the country took its frst steps towards a fuel-efcient
public transportaton. In an efort to comply with EU policies on
improving energy efciency, the government started to subsidise the
manufacturer Vulovic Transport (Kragujevac), which has secured a
contract to supply 32 buses.
Hungary is an established NGV market with more than 4,000 cars
running on natural gas and 18 refuelling statons. In December 2011
the Hungarian government introduced its Green Investment Scheme
totalling 260 million HUF (approximately 877,109) to reduce CO2
emissions. This initatve provides public funding for CNG busses,
investments in the CNG infrastructure and reduces registraton taxes
for NGVs, boostng the role of CNG feets in public transport.
This year the municipality of Budapest acquired 60 Iveco natural gas
trucks for waste operatons.
This marks an extremely important step forward for natural gas-
powered vehicles in Hungary and Budapest. The Iveco Stralis
complying with Euro VI emission requirements will reduce both air and
noise polluton in the city.
With 4,600 natural gas vehicles and 42 CNG flling statons Belarus is
considered to be a growing NGV market with good prospects. Along
with Belarusian state authorites Gazprom is investng in the expansion
of the Belarusian NGV market through its subsidiary Beltransgas. As
it does in Russia, Gazprom plans to implement a programme aimed
at increasing CNG sales, building facilites to manufacture natural gas-
powered vehicles and expanding the fuelling network. Beltransgaz runs
a network of 26 CNG refuelling statons with capacity of 9,000 fllings
per day or 165 million cubic meters of natural gas per year.
AUSTRIA - Innsbruck
ITALY - Milan
SLOVENIA Ljubljana
CROATIA Zagreb
SERBIA - Belgrade
HUNGARY - Budapest
BELARUS - Minsk
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Natural gas has a bright future in the transportaton sector, considering the exponental growth across
the globe over the past 15 years.
The Internatonal Energy Agencys (IEA) June 2013 Medium-Term Gas Market Report predicts natural gas
will emerge as a key transportaton fuel in the next fve years, building on the more than 17 million NGVs
currently in use around the world.
Gas demand in transportaton grew tenfold between 2000 and 2010, and the IEA report foresees that by
2018, gas use in the road and maritme transport sector could increase by nearly 10% to 50bcm.
A few countries are leading the way in clean NGV growth, helped by smart government subsidies and
low fuel prices. Numbers in parentheses represent the amount of NGVs in each country in 2011, and
have risen since: Iran (3.5 million), China (3.33 million), Pakistan (2.8 million), Argentna (2.4 million),
Brazil (1.8 million), and India (1.8 million). Among Europes leaders are Italy (823,000), Ukraine (170,000),
and Germany (100,000).
Natural gas has a wide array of economic and environmental benefts for the corporate sector
when used in transport. To reach the EUs 2050 environmental commitments in a highly cost-
efectve manner, the region could increase its use of natural gas in transport.
In Europe alone, 68 to 77 billion can be saved by 2050 when further developing the use of
natural gas in transport compared to a business as usual scenario.
Most savings, between 58 and 67 billion, can be generated before 2030.
Trucks and ships have the greatest potental to generate cost savings.
Furthermore, approximately 280,000 people contribute to the EU economy today through their
jobs in the natural gas industry. The development of gas in transport could drive this fgure up.
NGVs also beneft consumers. Even considering the relatvely higher purchase costs, NGVs are
more afordable than conventonal vehicles in the long run. Depending where you are, natural gas
prices can be up to 50% lower than diesel fuel, and will likely contnue to stay that low as gas supply
grows.
Future of Natural Gas in Transport
Economic Benefts
Is Natural
Gas Clean?
Natural gas engines
emit approximately 25
percent less CO2, 80
percent less CO, a third
less NOx and almost
no soot or partculate
mater, compared to those
running on traditonal
transport fuels.
Photo capton: Blue Corridor Rally 2013
Photo Caption: Partcipants from Gazprom during the Blue Corridor 2012 NGV Rally's stop in Paris.
8
Natural gas is a clean and safe energy source. Increasing the
share of gas in the EU energy mix by only 1% will reduce the
emissions by 3%.
Specifcally, natural gas is one of the cleaner alternatves to
petroleum in transportaton. Compared to diesel or petrol:
Gas reduces carbon CO
2
emissions by 25%
Gas cuts carbon CO emissions by 80%
Gas emits a third less NOx emissions, a far-more potent
global warming gas than carbon dioxide
LNG can play a crucial role in heavy-duty truck transport or in
the maritme shipping sector. Its high energy content and driving
range between 500 and 1,000km on road in one tank are
best suited to replace oil in these sectors. Gas as a motor fuel
holds great prospects in reducing GHG emissions in short-
sea shipping in partcular, which represents a major part of
European shipping.
A Det Norske Veritas (DNV GL), internatnal classifcaton
agency, report found an LNG-powered crude oil tanker would
use 25% less energy and emit 34% less carbon dioxide than a
conventonally-fuelled one.
Future of Natural Gas in Transport
Environmental Benefts of Natural Gas
Photo capton: Blue Corridor
Rally 2013, Germany
Photo capton: Blue Corridor
Rally 2011, Russia
9
What is Liquifed Petroleum Gas?
Liquefed petroleum gas (LPG) is another well-known gas fuel. This should not be confused
with natural gasLPG is a by-product of oil, chemically consistng of propane and butane, and
difers in physical features from natural gas. In contrast to methane, LPG is heavier than air and
creates more CO2 emissions. Although it is in some way easier to store and to convert engines
to it, it performs poorer from the environmental and security view.
What is Liquifed Natural Gas?
LNG is natural gas that is transformed from its regular gaseous state into a liquid by cooling it
to approximately -162 Celsius/-260 Fahrenheit at normal air pressure. Its liquid state is very
space-efectveit only takes up about 1/600 the volume of gaseous natural gasallowing it to
efciently ft inside a fuel tank.
LNG is safepartcularly in comparison to other vehicle fuelsbecause it is odourless, non-toxic,
non-corrosive and less dense than water. Unlike petroleum-based fuels, LNG disperses quickly in
the event of a spill, making it less dangerous to the environment.
What is Compressed Natural Gas?
To make CNG, natural gas is compressed at a rate of 3,600 pounds per square inch and then
stored. The resultng product is odourless, nontoxic, infammable and lighter than air.
CNG is more ofen used for NGVs than LNG because it is less expensive to produce and store
than LNG. However, CNG has a greater mass than LNG, so NGVs running on CNG require
larger fuel tanks and must be refuelled more frequently than their LNG counterparts. CNG
is therefore a good opton for vehicles that drive round trips and can be refuelled daily, like
passenger cars, feet vehicles and public transportaton buses.
10
The very frst practcally applicable (commercial) internal
combuston engine was designed and built in 1858 - 1860 by
Belgian engineer Etenne Lenoir. The engine used a mixture of
coal gas (methane) and air.
Although natural gas has been recognised as a basic source of
heat and energy for centuries, its use in transportaton is relatvely
recent. In the 1930s, natural gas and manufactured gas were
used in motor vehicles for multple purposes. However, crude oil
expansion afer World War II drove its use down and it stayed that
way for decades.
This is no longer the case, as NGVs are experiencing a substantal
hike in popularity. As stated above, a number of factors have led
to the quick growth in NGVs over the past ten years, including
the cleanliness, afordability, safety, and abundance of the fuel.
All of these factors have caused forward-thinking governments
and companies to see the economic and environmental benefts
to consumers and the corporate sector and to invest in this clean
fuel.
Global NGV growth has been especially strong over the past eight
years, increasing from 4 million in 2004, to 9.5 million in 2008, to
more than 17 million in 2013. The creaton of blue corridors is
playing a large role in this vast expansion.
The idea of building blue corridors is not new. Since the early
years of NGV technology, many initatves have shed light on the
need to create pioneering routes gathering gas flling statons
along several major transport roads linking the EU and its close
Eastern neighbours.
For example, the idea of a Blue Corridor Project was launched in
2000 by the non-governmental Vernadsky Ecological Foundaton
in Moscow and Gazprom. It was also explored in 2003 by the UN
Economic Commission for Europe.
From the start, the objectve of these projects was to examine
the feasibility and demonstrate the necessity of establishing
transport corridors for road vehicles powered by CNG instead
of diesel or petrol because of the economic and environmental
advantages.
The existng Blue Corridor NGV Rally was frst organised by
Gazprom and NGVRUS in Russia in 2008. In 2010, E.ON Ruhrgas
joined the event and supported its expansion to Europe to
promote natural gas as the most environmentally-friendly and
economic transportaton fuel, partcularly for municipalites and
government feets.
On 3 October 2013 the 7th Blue Corridor Rally started in St.
Petersburg, bringing together Natural Gas Vehicles produced by
the original equipment manufacturers.The rally circled the Baltc
Sea, following the old Hansa League route a medieval trade
union of seacoast cites.
For the frst tme ever, the rally partcipants crossed the Baltcs
and went from Finland to Sweden by a ferry running on liquefed
natural gas (LNG) with traditonal oil fuels as back-up. This is a
concreteexample of the environmental and economic benefts of
using LNG in shipping - crucial in the heavily polluted Baltc Sea.
The Scandinavian part of the rally ended in Copenhagen, from
where the partcipants moved on to Hamburg.
Then, following the Hansa route, a road train reached the Polish
city of Gdansk and ran across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. That
year the environmentally-friendly cars covered a distance of 4,000
kilometres.
History of NGVs
History of the Blue Corridor Rally
The Most Recent Blue Corridor Rally