Antares Group, one of the most popular groups of companies with Romanian capital, announces the opening of the first compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling stations network in Romania, along the European transport corridors. The total investment of 5.2 million euro, will run until 2019 and benefits from a non-refundable contribution of 4.4 million euro grant from the CEF Program of the European Commission. The project is developed by Denisson Energy SRL, a member of Antares Group, and the Association of Producers and Users of Compressed Natural Gas – CNG (Romanian CNG Association).
“This alternative fuel is a viable choice to oil based fuels, because, on one hand, it brings drastic reduction of particulate emissions, which contributes to the improvement of the air quality and therefore our health, and on the other hand, it reduces operational costs of transport. In consequence, Antares bets on the development of CNG vehicles in the near future”, said Dumitru Becsenescu, president of Antares Group and president of Romanian CNG Association.
The CNG refuelling stations will be deployed in major cities located along the European core network corridors Rhine-Danube & Orient/East-Med: Arad, Bucharest, Constanta, Craiova Deva, Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Sibiu, Pitesti and Timisoara helping to improve sustainable mobility within the country and EU. One year ago, at the opening of the first CNG refuelling station in Romania, located in Ramnicu Valcea, Antares Group was announcing that they were prepared to invest in this area and to create a national network of CNG refuelling stations that will allow users to travel anywhere in the country and in Europe. Until last year, Romania was the only European Union continental member state without refuelling stations for CNG vehicles, although there is a European Directive which says that by 2025, all Member States must have such stations at every 150 km distance on their segments of TEN-T core network.” The lack of appetite for investment in this area was justified by three factors: the absence of a market, too high investment costs and, not the least, because of an incomplete legislation in this area until recently. We seized this opportunity and overcame all the difficulties due to my desire to create something that will mater, to be able to offer our children a better future”, said Dumitru Becsenescu, President of Antares Group.
About Antares Group
Antares Group was established in 1994 and it’s headquarter is in Ramnicu Valcea. Today, the group includes 10 companies with about 300 employees, performing different activities as transport, tourism, construction, processing and selling products as LPG and recently also CNG. The group’s strategy is to develop sustainable business by continuously improving the quality of the products and services, to increase profitability and decrease operational costs. More information about Antares Group and CNG can be found here: http://antares-group.ro