'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.