In Malaysia one gasoline sample containing 3.6% v/v of ethanol was found in the summer 2022 SGS Worldwide Fuel Survey (WWFS). This sample was found in June 2022, and taken from a Petronas fuel station in Kuantan, Malaysia. It had sulfur and manganese content of 9.4 mg/kg and 8.5 mg/l, respectively.
In the previous ten years, the SGS WWFS fuel analysis has not previously identified any gasoline blends with more than 3% v/v ethanol in Malaysia. Moreover, Malaysia does not mandate the use of ethanol, and no ethanol blended fuel is available on the market. Thus, it is highly likely to have been imported from another country.
Based on the country's external trade statistics data, Malaysia imports product with HS code: 271012 (including gasoline) from 33 countries worldwide, mainly from Asia. Of these, seven countries/provinces use ethanol fuel, including Australia, China, India, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, province of China and Thailand. However, the Japan and Taiwan markets only supply E3 (3% v/v ethanol blends with 97% v/v conventional gasoline), slightly lower than the sample in which the ethanol content was found.
Australia, China, India, Philippines and Thailand sell E10 on their domestic markets. Based on the 2022 summer SGS WWFS data, we found that most of the E10 fuel sold in these countries had ethanol content in a range of 8% v/v to 12.5% v/v. Therefore, the ethanol fuel is either non-compliant fuel imported from Japan and Taiwan, or from the five countries providing E10.
Equally, the manganese content found in this sample is relatively high compared with other Malaysian gasoline samples. Under the Malaysian national gasoline specification, no maximum regulatory limit of manganese is set, but the intentional addition of metallic additives is not allowed. Based on the 2022 summer SGS WWFS data, the gasoline samples containing ethanol were found in the Philippines only: in the other six countries, gasoline samples found only a trace level of manganese.
At present, two grades of gasoline, RON 95 and 97 are sold on the Malaysian market. SGS INSPIRE is of the belief that this sample may be a mixed gasoline with a high ethanol and manganese content. Thus, the sample is highly likely to have come from the Philippines.
Details of gasoline specifications for Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand are available in the SGS INSPIRE fuel specifications database.