Apache Corporation, an oil and gas exploration and production company, announced that it has selected six non-profit organizations and two local municipalities to each receive a free vehicle conversion to natural gas power.

The donations, which include a gift card for a one-year supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) for each of the newly converted vehicles, were made possible through Apache's Community & Neighborhood Giving program, a philanthropic arm of Apache's Central Region operations based in Tulsa, Okla.

Organizations that will receive the conversions are:

• The Gatesway Foundation, a non-profit Oklahoma agency that provides opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The CNG vehicle will be used to transport individuals to work, shopping stores, and other appointments.

• Family & Children's Services provides behavioral health services to the community. The CNG vehicle will be used by therapists who provide in-home and community-based intervention and stabilization services to individuals experiencing psychiatric emergencies.

• CAP Tulsa, an anti-poverty agency in Oklahoma. Its mission is to help families in need achieve economic self-sufficiency. CAP says that by converting a high-use vehicle to CNG, money that it saves will be used to purchase books and other items that help prepare low-income children for future success.

• The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges provides organized social, cultural, and recreational opportunities for persons with physical disabilities. The conversion would be used for a bus that transports its members to events, as well as take its junior wheelchair athletes to competitions.

• Tulsa Habitat for Humanity helps families to own their own homes through home buyers education and community support. The conversion would be used on a box truck that picks up large donations for the Tulsa Habitat ReStore. The ReStore picks up donations of building supplies and sells them to the public at discounted prices. Habitat says the truck uses 350 gallons of gasoline each month, so the CNG conversion is expected to provide significant savings to the group.

• Tulsa Boys' Home serves 64 Oklahoma boys with behavioral, emotional, and drug addiction problems. The organization says a CNG conversion will reduce fuel and maintenance costs for a vehicle it will use to shuttle boys to sporting, local theater, and music events, as well as trips to the museum.

• City of Broken Arrow said that it will save city money by using a CNG vehicle. The use of this first CNG vehicle will allow the City to measure the practicality of using CNG for the rest of its fleet.

• The City of Tulsa is committed to using CNG as vehicle fuel, so this donation will fund an additional CNG vehicle to its fleet. The move will help the city and taxpayers save money.

Apache's first CNG station was built in Oklahoma in 2009. Since that time, Apache has constructed a total of 20 CNG stations in cities where it operates in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. The company has converted over 400 of its fleet vehicles to CNG with long term plans to convert 80 percent of the fleet.

Learn more about Apache at www.apachecorp.com.