Oil firms ready for Euro 4 implementation

MINDFUL of the mandatory use of the cleaner and more efficient global fuel standard called Euro 4, by January 2016, oil firms have started offering a full range of compliant fuel products.

“It’s mandatory on Jan. 1 so practically all oil firms have introduced Euro 4 fuels, especially in Metro Manila,” Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said in a briefing.

Euro 4 is a globally accepted European emission standard for vehicles that requires fuel with significantly lower amounts of sulfur and benzene.

Petron, the country’s top oil firm in terms of market share, launched its Euro 4 gasoline products in June and its compliant diesel products in October. “We are proud that all of Petron’s Euro 4 fuels are made in the Philippines,” company CEO Ramon S. Ang said.

The top oil firm’s fuels are locally produced at its refinery in Bataan and formulated for Philippine driving conditions. The company recently invested $2 billion to further upgrade its Bataan Refinery and make it among the most advanced refineries in Asia-Pacific in terms of processing and energy efficiency, operational availability and complexity.

Ang has called the refinery upgrade a “game-changer,” saying it will not only benefit Petron through higher production but the domestic oil industry as well through the increased supply of world-class products.

He said in an earlier interview that actual commercial production or operation was estimated to start early 2016.

Shell, another dominant oil firm in the Philippines, is also Euro 4-ready, said country chairperson Edgar Chua.

“For Shell, it’s 100-percent Euro 4,” Chua said, noting that Shell completed the upgrade of its 110,000 barrels per day refinery in Batangas province on December 4. The oil giant is observing operations of the upgraded facility, he added.

Minor oil firms such as Seaoil, Phoenix Petroleum, Eastern Petroleum and PTT Philippines Corp., a subsidiary of Thailand’s petroleum giant, said they have started importing Euro 4 emission standard compliant fuels.

“We are ready to comply nationwide by yearend since we have started importing Euro 4 during the 4Q (fourth quarter),” said Phoenix Petroleum spokesperson Raymond Zorilla via text message.

Their moves make them compliant with the directive from the Department of Energy (DOE) requiring all oil companies to sell Euro 4 fuels starting January 2016.

Oil firms had a little heart-skip earlier this year as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reset the pre-agreed deadline for the implementation of the Euro 4 emission standard to July this year from January 2016.

However, the DOE pointed out that an earlier deadline wasn’t doable for oil companies, especially those that need time to process imports in order to comply, and a phased implementation was later agreed upon, starting with urban centers such as Metro Manila where most fuel customers are.

The DENR has said sulfur levels of diesel and gasoline should stand at 0.005 percent or 50 parts per million under the new standard from 0.05 percent or 500 ppm under Euro 2 standards. The benzene content of gasoline will also go down to 1 percent from 5 percent.

The department also noted that Euro 4 products have 35 percent aromatics in volume terms, unlike Euro 2 fuels which have no limit set for this measure.