OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, an Oklahoma City-based operator of 280 travel stops and convenience stores, announced plans to add 10 publicly accessible compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations at existing locations across Oklahoma. 

These CNG fueling stations will be located in Altus, Chickasha, Guthrie, Guymon, Lawton, Norman, Okemah, Oklahoma City and Webbers Falls -- with one additional Oklahoma location soon to be determined. The stations will be built and operated in cooperation with Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., the nation's second-largest producer of domestic natural gas.

The addition of 10 new CNG stations at Love's locations in Oklahoma will bring the company's CNG station count to 11 and give Oklahoma more than 50 public CNG stations. The company opened its first public CNG fueling station earlier this year at its store located in Kingfisher, Okla., where several companies, including UPS, AT&T and Chesapeake, operate CNG fleet vehicles.

"We are pleased at Love's to join with Chesapeake Energy to add CNG fueling stations at a time when demand is growing for natural gas as a transportation fuel in Oklahoma," said Jenny Love Meyer, Love's director of communications. "Every year more companies are converting their fleets to run on CNG. Chesapeake's decision to convert its entire 4,500-vehicle fleet to CNG last year added important momentum.”

In 2009, Oklahoma enacted alternative fuel legislation, spurring an increase in the number of public CNG fueling stations across the state. In the past two years, the number of public CNG stations in Oklahoma has increased from 26 to 43.

Construction on the 10 CNG fueling stations at Love's locations in Oklahoma will begin in December. Preferred Services, a company headquartered in Oklahoma, is building the new CNG stations at Love's.