THE GAS STATION OF THE FUTURE MIGHT ALREADY BE HERE
SUPPORTED BY
THE GAS STATION OF THE FUTURE MIGHT ALREADY BE HERE Europump’s Dennis Ocal on why the world’s energy transition needs to stop waiting — and start converting
T
he debate around the global energy transition often feels like a war of absolutes. Electrify everything. Hydrogen is the future. Fossil fuels must go. But step into a conversation with Dennis Ocal, CEO of Europump — the Milan-headquartered energy infrastructure company with over three decades in the fueling industry — and a far more pragmatic picture emerges. "The policy narrative in Europe is heavily focused on electrification and hydrogen," Ocal says, leaning into the kind of bluntness that only comes from 30 years of watching grand promises meet hard infrastructure realities. "But the electrical grids are not ready. The charging stations are not ready. And hundreds of millions of internal combustion engines are already on the road — today." 2
Buisness Enquirer Magazine
The Chicken and the Egg
It is a classic infrastructure dilemma: manufacturers won't commit until consumers demand it, and consumers won't demand what doesn't yet exist. Ocal calls it the "chicken and the egg" — and argues that in the rush to leap toward tomorrow, policymakers are ignoring a perfectly serviceable bridge that's already been built. That bridge is LPG. Liquefied Petroleum Gas — often dismissed as old technology — is, in Ocal's view, one of the most underutilised tools in the global clean energy toolkit. In Italy alone, there are over 40,000 LPG filling points already operational, part of a distribution network built by the Europump group's Spark System Auto Gas division. Converting a traditional internal combustion engine to run on LPG or CNG takes a conversion kit and a fraction of the cost of buying a new electric vehicle. The numbers are difficult to argue with. While gasoline prices in Europe have surpassed €2 per litre, LPG currently sits at around 80 cents per litre — and cuts
PROJECT DIRECTED BY: ADEL MHIRI ARTICLE WRITTEN BY: ZAAKIRA IBRAHIM
EUROPUMP OIL & GAS
Business Enquirer Magazine
3
Measure with confidence. The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. © 2026 Emerson Electric Co.
Discover the Micro Motion™ G-Series Coriolis Flow and Density Meters. Designed for OEMs, machine builders, and process equipment manufacturers, the G-Series combines industry-leading measurement performance with the flexibility to address a wide range of applications. With broad sizing options, advanced diagnostics, and reliable operation, it simplifies integration, optimizes process efficiency, and supports long-term equipment performance. Deliver accurate, dependable measurement from a single trusted platform. To learn more, go to Emerson.com/MicroMotion
4
Buisness Enquirer Magazine
EUROPUMP OIL & GAS Emerson: Engineering Smarter Industry Emerson is a global technology and software company delivering advanced automation solutions for many of the world’s most essential industries. With a broad portfolio spanning intelligent devices, control systems, industrial software and engineering expertise, the company helps manufacturers improve operational performance, increase reliability and respond more effectively to changing market demands.
integrating industrial data, artificial intelligence, softwaredefined control and cybersecurity, the company is helping customers modernise existing infrastructure while preparing for increasingly autonomous operations. This approach enables businesses to improve productivity, protect personnel, reduce downtime and strengthen operational resilience without losing the value of established systems.
Supporting process, hybrid and discrete industries, Emerson works across sectors including energy, chemicals, life sciences, power, water, food and beverage, mining and advanced manufacturing. Its technologies connect equipment, processes and enterprise-level data, giving organisations greater visibility and control across complex operations. Platforms such as DeltaV and Ovation combine process management, analytics and automation capabilities to support faster decision-making, consistent production and more efficient use of resources.
Sustainability is also embedded within Emerson’s work. Its solutions help organisations monitor energy consumption, reduce emissions, minimise waste and advance the development of lower-carbon technologies. Backed by a global presence and deep industry knowledge, Emerson serves as a long-term technology partner to organisations navigating digital transformation and industrial change.
Innovation remains central to Emerson’s strategy. By
Through the combination of automation, software and engineering, Emerson continues to help industry operate more safely, intelligently and sustainably, while creating measurable value across plants, facilities and wider industrial networks over time.
www.emerson.com/en/corporate carbon dioxide emissions by up to 20%. "We are not asking governments to build something new," Ocal says. "We are asking them to use what already exists." Bio LPG: The Renewable Nobody Talks About The environmental case for LPG grows even stronger when Bio LPG enters the equation. Chemically identical to conventional LPG, Bio LPG is derived from renewable feedstocks — rapeseed, agricultural crops, organic waste — and can flow through existing LPG infrastructure without modification. This matters enormously in emerging markets. In Nigeria, LPG depots already supply cooking gas to millions of households. With minimal conversion, those same facilities could simultaneously become auto-gas stations — reducing deforestation from charcoal use, lowering urban carbon emissions, and building a local clean-mobility ecosystem without a single kilometre of new pipeline. Ocal is careful not to oversell it. "Awareness is a real challenge," he says. "In Tanzania, for
example, many people simply do not know that gas can power a vehicle. You need safety training programmes, government incentives, and proper consumer education. The technology is ready. The infrastructure conversation needs to catch up." From Pump Manufacturer to Energy Consultant Europump has itself undergone a significant transformation. Founded over 30 years ago as a specialist pump manufacturer based in Milan, the company has evolved — through deliberate vertical integration — into what Ocal describes as an energy consulting and project company. Where it once supplied equipment, it now manages procurement and operations across upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. "We are not just selling a pump," he says. "We are the partner who helps a country or a company understand its energy options and build for the next 20 years." This shift is reflected in the company's technological investments. Europump Business Enquirer Magazine
5
has moved toward Coriolis mass flow measurement — a technology that provides real-time temperature and density compensation, delivering accuracy within 0.2%. Compared to conventional positive displacement meters used in most gasoline or diesel dispensers, it represents a meaningful leap in inventory management. Paired with magnetorestrictive level gauge probes integrated directly into tanks, operators can crosscalibrate dispenser outputs against tank levels in real time, receiving millimetreaccurate data through cloud-based dashboards. For mature markets, Ocal explains, the demand is for AI-driven analytics, cloud reporting, and automated wet stock control. For developing markets, the priorities are inverted: simplicity, durability, and equipment engineered to operate reliably for 10 to 20 years in remote locations where service
6
Buisness Enquirer Magazine
technicians cannot easily travel. Managing both realities simultaneously — from a headquarters in Milan, with late-night calls to South American partners and weekend sessions supporting Southeast Asian clients — is a logistical feat that Ocal describes with the matter-of-fact composure of someone long accustomed to operating across time zones. Geopolitics as a Catalyst The 2022 invasion of Ukraine was a turning point — not just geopolitically, but commercially. For Europump, demand for LPG vaporizers surged as nations that had previously relied on centralised pipeline networks began urgently seeking decentralised energy alternatives. Ocal was watching closely. "Energy security became the primary investment driver almost overnight," he recalls. "Countries started asking: how do
EUROPUMP OIL & GAS
Business Enquirer Magazine
7
8
Buisness Enquirer Magazine
EUROPUMP OIL & GAS we make ourselves independent? How do we build a network that cannot be switched off by a pipeline blockage?" Ongoing instability in the Gulf — disrupting shipping lanes and driving oil price volatility — has deepened that urgency. The result, Ocal argues, is a oncein-a-generation opportunity to make the case for distributed LPG and CNG infrastructure as not merely an energy solution, but a national security one. Investors, too, are paying closer attention. When asked about the spectre of stranded assets — a legitimate concern in an era of rapid energy transition — Ocal offers a pointed contrast: a hydrogen dispenser today costs several hundred thousand euros and depends on infrastructure that remains largely theoretical outside a handful of pilot projects. An LPG tank, by comparison, can be integrated into an existing forecourt at a fraction of the cost, using established technology, serving established demand. "LPG is not a stranded asset risk," he says flatly. "The unproven, billion-euro infrastructure project is."
The Three-Tier Future None of this means Ocal is opposed to electrification or hydrogen. His vision for the future is not a retreat to the past — it is a more honest accounting of what is achievable, and when. "The best path forward is a multi-tiered structure," he says. "Electric vehicles, hydrogen, LPG, and CNG — coexisting, supported by government-led awareness campaigns, safety incentives, and realistic subsidies. You do not force an entire world to make a single transition simultaneously. You use every tool available." It is, in essence, an argument for energy pluralism in an era of energy ideology. And coming from a man who has spent three decades building the infrastructure that powers millions of vehicles across dozens of countries — quietly, practically, without fanfare — it carries a weight that no policy paper quite manages to replicate. The gas station of the future, Dennis Ocal suggests, might look very much like the one that already exists. It just needs to be seen more clearly. Europump is headquartered in Milan, Italy, and operates across markets in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
www.europumpitalia.com
Business Enquirer Magazine
9
EUROPUMP www.europumpitalia.com
info@busenq.com www.busenq.com The editor and publishers do not guarantee the accuracy of statements made by contributers or advertisers, or accept responsibilty for any statement they express in this publication. The opinion of the contributors may not necessarily be the opinion of the editor or publishers. All content including the presentation therof in this magazine is the property of BE Media and protected by internation al copyright laws. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, modify, create derivitave works, or in any other way exploit any part of copyrighted material without prior written permission from BE Media ©BE Media