Newsletter February 2021

Welcome to the newsletter of SGS INSPIRE, the newsletter that keeps you informed about the latest global developments in fuel quality. Read our update from the world's regions.

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SGS INSPIRE on what to expect in 2021, talks about the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020, resulting in delays to many governments’ fuel policy targets. Movement restrictions and the closure of international borders created huge stockpiles of aviation fuels and a spike demand for storage capacity across the globe.

In 2020 we also observed countries with different summer and winter fuel grades extending the use of summer grade to winter mainly because of very low consumption of the summer grade. Due to high inventory, aviation fuel was utilized in the production of other transportation fuels such as diesel and marine fuels.

Refineries across the world have experienced significant losses in 2020 and this trend is expected to continue in 2021. Many refineries have closed permanently and are being converted into import terminals, others are reducing capacity as the industry does not foresee demand returning to pre-pandemic levels.

If you did not attend our webinar on fuel quality developments in mid-January, we invite you to look at the or the .

Market shares of gasoline per octane grades and ethanol grades.

We updated fuel quality requirements from the following countries and territories in our global fuel quality , which now contains 4,400 entries:

Albania (hydrogen), Armenia (CNG, LNG, aviation turbine fuel), Belarus (LNG), Bolivia (gasoline, kerosene), Brazil (diesel exhaust fluid), Chile (marine fuel), Colombia (diesel, gasoline, biodiesel blend), Dominican Republic (CNG, fuel oil, kerosene), Egypt (marine fuel), European Union (hydrogen), Fiji (diesel, gasoline), Gibraltar (diesel, gasoline), Global (marine fuel, racing fuel used in Formula 1), Guatemala (diesel, gasoline, aviation gasoline, fuel oil, jet fuel, kerosene, propane, butane), India (diesel exhaust fluid), Iraq (diesel), Italy (ethanol blend E85), Kazakhstan (LNG), Kyrgyzstan (LNG, aviation turbine fuel), Montenegro (hydrogen), North Macedonia (hydrogen), State of Palestine (diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene, LPG), Romania (ethanol blend E85), Russian Federation (LNG, aviation turbine fuel), Serbia (hydrogen), Spain (ethanol blend E85), Switzerland (gasoline, ethanol blend E85), Tajikistan (aviation turbine fuel), Turkey (hydrogen), Ukraine (CNG), United Kingdom (distillate fuel, hydrogen), United States: Alaska, Hawaii (gasoline), Yemen (kerosene).

At the beginning of December 2020, the European Union (EU) published the legislative for the next four years. By the mid-2021 the EU plans on drafting several proposals affecting renewable energy usage in transport and CO2 standards.

On December 24, 2020, the UK and the EU reached an agreement over the UK exit from the EU (). As from January 1, 2021, the UK does not have to follow the EU policy on renewable energy or CO2 standards for cars.

largest biofuel producer Prio plans supplying marine diesel with 15 % of biodiesel.

Fuel supplier ENI brands diesel blended with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as “blue diesel„ in . SGS Worldwide Fuel Survey indicated few samples with high N-Methylaniline content in the gasoline sold in .

In 2019, consumed 216 million liters of biodiesel and 607,000 liters of HVO. In 2020, introduced the gasoline grade RON 95 E10, and the gasoline grade RON 91 was phased out.

The is working on the EU Renewbale Energy Directive’s implementation and it is likely it will introduce a cap for used cooking oil and animal fat oil based biofuels which will be higher than the EU limit – 1.7%. Small volumes of bio-naphta blending in gasoline is observed in the .

In the next months, SGS INSPIRE plans publishing the gasoline and diesel country profiles for the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal.

According to Russia’s Ministry of Energy , in 2020, the consumption of class 5 gasoline (maximum sulfur content 10 mg/kg) in Russia decreased by 5.6%. The ministry assumes that in the next 15 years, gasoline consumption in the country will grow by only 4-5%, to 36.7-37.1 million tons / year, compared to 35.2 million tons in 2018.

Between January and November 2020, we observed 12% increase in gasoline consumption and 19% increase in diesel consumption in despite COVID-19 isolation measures. In 2021, will start building a refinery to reduce its dependency from imports. From 2021, Georgia also plans to implement a 10 mg/kg sulfur limit for diesel.

Update of the gasoline and diesel country profiles for Kazakhstan and Russia.

Joseph Biden won the United States presidential election behind aggressive and platforms aiming at curbing pollution and climate change. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the of much-awaited reforms on fuels regulations. Also, a leaked document from the EPA suggested that or tampering with emissions treatment equipment is rampant among heavy-duty pickup trucks.

Meanwhile, the recent trend of refiners electing to retrofit refineries for renewable (i.e. paraffinic) diesel production continued, with HollyFrontier announcing a to execute retrofits at two refineries.

In Canada, the country’s environmental regulator, Environment & Climate Change Canada, published a aiming to reduce the carbon intensity of liquid transportation fuels.

Overview of PADD 3 and PADD 2 state-level gasoline regulations.

The government of Chile presented its in the country. One of the key points of the strategy is to develop fuels derived from green hydrogen to decarbonize the shipping and aviation sectors. Moreover, in October 2020, a consortium of companies announced the first project with hydrogen in Chile that will produce as of 2022.

In December 2020, the government of Colombia issued a bill to implement for both on-road and off-road vehicles. The schedule to implement different levels of Euro standards was published. Furthermore, Colombia also published a for biodiesel, diesel, gasoline and oxygenated gasoline, and to implement renewable diesel specifications. The schedule of implementation was also published.

Brazil reinstated United States imported ethanol in January 2021.

Caribbean fuels specifications, market and actual quality were analyzed in the , and reports, issued in December 2020 and January 2021 on SGS INSPIRE’s website.

Paraguay has several in place and blends 27.5% ethanol, like Brazil. There are several as well, depending on the origin and the sulfur content. The overview of shows emissions standards and vehicles fleet in Paraguay.

Update of the gasoline and diesel country profiles for Brazil.

In October, the Chinese central government announced the development plan for , setting a target of 20% share of new energy vehicles in total vehicles sales in 2025 and 40% in 2035.

Indonesia national oil company Pertamina started its , enticing consumers to ditch RON 88 gasoline and switch to those with higher octane ratings. During this period, RON 90 is sold at IDR 6,850 (USD 0.49) per liter, about IDR 800 (USD 0.057) cheaper than the normal price for lower octane gasoline.

To reduce crude petroleum imports, the Indian government announced that it had asked companies, including government owned companies, to build 1,000 along major roads, industrial corridors and mining areas, by 2023.

In December 2020, Indian Oil launched . Bharat Petroleum started selling RON 97 a few years ago, and about two weeks prior to the launch of RON 100, Hindustan Petroleum launched its RON 99 grade. These high-octane gasoline grades are mainly dedicated to the growing number of luxury vehicles in India.

Updated report of India: overview of gasoline quality.

Mauritius is currently contemplating the possibility of , contrary to the current trend of importing Euro 3-4 enabling fuels.

Morocco is seeking to transition from the in the next two years. The government is also considering implementing Euro 6-enabling fuel standards to align them with the emission standards.

Overview of gasoline, diesel quality and overview of vehicles in Morocco.