First, a little background about LPG (Liquified petroleum gas) or GPL as it’s called in French and in Tunisia:
Liquified petroleum gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles, and increasingly replacing chlorofluorocarbons as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant to reduce damage to the ozone layer.
Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are primarily propane, mixes that are primarily butane, and mixes including both propane and butane. Propylene and butylenes are usually also present in small concentration. A powerful odorant, ethanethiol, is added so that leaks can be detected easily.
LPG is manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they emerge from the ground.
LPG (also known as autogas) is widely used as a “green” fuel for internal combustion engines as it decreases exhaust emissions.
Which brings us to the use of LPG in cars and transportation in Tunisia; I remember as part of one of the eco-friendly pushes a few years ago, some buses running on LPG were introduced into the the transport lines. Unlike the regular yellow buses, these were painted orange, so they were easily identifiable. I don’t really know why they didn’t go on changing the bus fleet to LPG powered ones as I barely see any these days.
Anyway, over the past couple of days, I’ve been seeing more and more cars running on LPG, most of them taxis, but a number of them personal cars too, which I think is great.
I hope the number of cars running on LPG increases and that the number of fuel stations providing LPG grows.
Currently, from the bit of research I did online, I found that the LPG is available for the Tunis region at the Agil station on the Tunis-Bizerte Highway (RN8).
There is another Agil station that serves up LPG on the highway to the south of Tunisia.
Sfax and Gabes seem to be the cities where you’ll have no problem finding LPG, with Gabes even having an LPG-only station, and most of the taxis running on LPG.
Sousse has 3 fuel stations that provide LPG and Gafsa has one.
What I find really good about this all is the movement towards more eco-friendly fuels. I hope it continues and that the government encourages people to use cleaner fuels and technologies.
Up to now, there is only one Hybrid car in Tunisia, which is a Toyota Prius.
But with Toyota’s recent efforts to strengthen it’s presence in Tunisia, I hope more people will look at the hybrid alternative too.
Columbian pop star Shakira will be performing live in Tunisia soon; most probably this November 2006 at the Menzah stadium, where others like Michael Jackson, Sting and Mariah Carey performed before her.
It’s that time of the year when the north coastal town of Tabarka welcomes Jazz musicians and fans from all over the world in it’s famous Tabarka Jazz Festival, and everyone has started planning for the concerts they’re going to attend.