HCM City petrol station (Photo: VNA) Theministry said it had established a team to work with E5 bio-fuel producers andtraders, and Binh Son Refinery to accelerate progress, as well as prepareinfrastructure for the use of E5 bio-fuel nationwide. This followed the latestdecision passed by Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung concerning thebio-fuel development project and the roadmap for shifting to bio-fuel mixedwith fossil fuels.
Statisticsfrom the ministry showed that the total petroleum consumption amount in thecountry last year was around 7.4 million cu.m. Of this, the E5 bio-fuelconsumption was 590,000cu.m, accounting for 8 percent of the total consumption,while that of RON 92 petrol was 92 percent, equivalent to 6.81 million cu.m.
Theministry said that if the country halted the use of RON 92 petrol from thebeginning of next year, the total E5 bio-fuel consumption would be more than5.3 million cu.m.
Thesupply of bio-fuel ethanol for E5 petrol, which is a mix of A92 petrol (95 percent)and bio-fuel Ethanol (5 percent), has been mainly provided by two biologicalplants of Tung Lam Joint Stock Company, having a total yearly capacity of200,000 cu.m to produce 3.9 cu.m of E5 a year.
In2016, the company sold around 2,000 cu.m of ethanol to the market.
Thereare two ethanol plants in southern Dung Quat and Binh Phuoc provinces with acapacity of 100,000 cu.m a year. However, the two plants had temporarily haltedtheir operations owing to lack of demand. They have been asked to restartoperations by the end of this year to cater to the nationwide demand for E5bio-fuel, once it replaces RON 92 petrol.
Theministry added that five out of the 26 petrol traders have their own E5bio-fuel mixing system, including Vietnam National Petroleum Group(Petrolimex), PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), Ho Chi Minh City Oil andGas Company (Saigon Petro), Military Petroleum Corporation and Nam Song HauTrading and Investing Petroleum Joint Stock Company.
Petrolimexhas five E5 mixing stations in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang, HCM City and Can Thothat uses in-line mixing technology with a total capacity of around 1.05million cu.m. Petrolimex has planned to increase its number of current mixingstations, as well as invest in those in Hanoi, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Ha Nam, NgheAn, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa and Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The total mixing capacity afterthe investment would reach 3 million cu.m to 3.4 million cu.m a year.
PvOil has 12 mixing stations in nine cities and provinces with a total yearlycapacity of 1.06 million cu.m. In addition to these, it has been investing infive mixing stations in Quang Ninh, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh provinces and Can Thocity. It is also upgrading its current stations to bring the total capacity to1.67 million cu.m a year.
Thethree remaining companies have total mixing capacity of more than 800,000 cu.ma year.
ThePETIMEX and Thanh Le Import-export Corporation, which have E5 bio-fuel mixingstations with a total capacity of 750,000 cu.m to 800,000 cu.m a year, have notbeen brought into operation.
Thetotal yearly capacity of E5 mixing stations from the seven petroleum traderscould reach 6.2 million cu.m to 6.7 million cu.m to meet with the demand for E5beginning next year.-VNA
VNA
