South Jersey Gas, subsidiary of energy services holding company South Jersey Industries and Wawa Inc. announced a joint project April 23 that will introduce compressed natural gas fueling at one of Wawa’s southern New Jersey locations. This joint project would be the first of its kind in the region and follow a similar format to initiatives between natural gas utilities and traditional fueling stations in other areas of the country, according to the companies.

The first station slated for CNG is located in Logan Township, N.J., off exit 10 of Route 295 and within the Pureland Industrial Complex. Other locations are being considered.

“We’re very excited to begin this joint project with Wawa as it’s a natural extension of the growth within our CNG business line,” said Jeffrey DuBois, president of South Jersey Gas. “This initiative will build greater faith among the general public in natural gas as a reliable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly transportation fuel source. With compressed natural gas costing approximately 1/3 less than gasoline at the pump and producing up to 30 percent less greenhouse gas emissions compared to diesel and gasoline powered vehicles, the market for customers to make the switch to CNG, particularly fleet vehicles, is plentiful,” added DuBois. 

“Wawa is pleased to offer compressed natural gas for the first time to our customers at our Logan Township store,” said Brian Schaller, vice president of Fuel for Wawa.  “This joint project with South Jersey Gas is another step in the evolution of Wawa’s fuel offer, providing an alternative that is cheaper, cleaner and domestically available. Compressed natural gas provides an opportunity to increase the value of our fuel and convenience offer to the customer, and positions us for the future. We are excited about the growth potential of this alternative fuel.”

Both companies anticipate having infrastructure in place at the Logan Township facility to begin serving natural gas fueled vehicles by early 2015. 

Compressed natural gas is a readily available alternative fuel that’s made by compressing natural gas to less than 1 percent of its volume at standard atmospheric pressure. Currently, there are well over 100,000 compressed natural gas vehicles operating in the United States and more than 14 million worldwide.

About South Jersey Gas
South Jersey Gas, the principal subsidiary of South Jersey Industries provides natural gas service to over 362,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, and significant portions of Gloucester, Burlington and Camden counties in New Jersey. Visit www.southjerseygas.com to learn more.

About Wawa, Inc.
Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey. Today, Wawa is an all-day, everyday stop for fresh, built-to-order foods, beverages, coffee, fuel services, and surcharge-free ATMs with a chain of more than 650 convenience retail stores (over 380 offering gasoline) in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Central Florida.