Increasing Biofuel Content in Petrol to 8pct Could Make the Market Turn More to Imports (Analysis)
(Agerpres) The biofuel business, a business based more on getting in line with European directives and less on the country’s agricultural potential, could get a new impetus in 2018 by switching to at least 8-percent biofuel content in gasoline from a current 4.5 percent, but manufacturers fear the market will use more imports.
Biofuels have been added to the composition of fuels in Romania since mid-2007, when the country joined the European Union (EU). Thus, Romania introduced a mandatory biodiesel content of 2 percent for the diesel fuel starting July 1.
Legislation has been updated and, together with it, producers have been asked for increased biofuel quota. According to the Ministry of Energy, as of 1 January 2016, diesel fuel must have a biofuel content of at least 6.5 percent by volume. Staring January 1, 2014 petrol must have had a biofuel content of at least 4.5 percent. This percentage was retained for the period 2014-2018, with gasoline with a biofuel content of at least 8 percent by volume expected to hit the markets on January 1, 2018.
General Manager Dumitru Feleaga of Bio Fuel Energy, the only bioethanol producer in the country, argues that an increase by at least 8 percent biofuel content in petrol could boost domestic production and the factory could increase production, but there is also the prospect of big oil companies preferring imports from companies with which parent companies have contracts. READ MORE
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