'Plenty of unleaded gasoline in 2004'
'Plenty of unleaded gasoline in 2004'
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State oil and gas firm Pertamina has expressed confidence that it
will be able to provide unleaded gasoline throughout the country
starting 2004 in line with the government's plan to progressively
tighten vehicle exhaust emission limits.
Pertamina's manager for the development of the fuel market,
Djaelani Sutomo, said on Monday that the company was in the
process of upgrading eight oil refineries operated by the company
so that they could produce unleaded gasoline.
"We have proposed to the government the budget for upgrading
the refineries ... We're waiting for the approval.
"We're upbeat the refineries will be ready to produce unleaded
gasoline in 2004," he told The Jakarta Post.
He declined to say how much money would be needed for the
upgrade.
Djaelani said the upgrade was necessary to enable the
refineries to produce engine octane booster, called high octane
mogas component (HOMC), which would be used to replace tetraethyl
lead (TEL) in leaded gasoline.
Pertamina, which controls fuel distribution in the country,
had said that it was still importing HOMC for limited production
of unleaded gasoline in Jakarta and Cirebon.
Djaelani said that Pertamina had already started upgrading the
Balongan and the Cilacap refineries.
The eight refineries have the capacity to process around 1.05
million barrels of crude per day.
The government is aiming to eliminate leaded gasoline starting
2004 as part of a policy to improve air quality. Last year, it
launched a limited campaign in Jakarta and Cirebon, West Java,
for the use of unleaded gasoline.
The Ministry of the Environment is planning to issue a decree
on tighter vehicle exhaust emission limits that would require new
vehicles to have catalytic converters beginning in 2004. The
decree becomes effective at the end of this year.
A catalytic converter is a device that is installed in the
exhaust pipe to help reduce the harmful emissions that pollute
the air such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO) and
hydrocarbon (HC). Catalytic converters can only use unleaded
gasoline.
The emission limit will be tightened in three phases: the pre-
2004 phase, the 2004-2007 phase and the post-2007 phase.
The government is seeking to implement European emission
standards.
Elsewhere, Djaelani said Pertamina would rather produce HOMC
than other engine boosters such as methylcyclopentadeiyl
manganese tricarbonyl (MMT) or methyl tertiary buthyl ether
(MTBE) due to environmental concerns.
"It is our policy to use HOMC. We're familiar with HOMC
because it pollutes less and can be produced from crude oil," he
said.