41
FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL
Quarter Two 2015
countries do not have gasoline or
diesel standards, or have no data
available.
RuengsakThitiratsakul,
deputy executive director of the
Petroleum Institute of Thailand
(PTIT), also emphasised this
underappreciated correlation. He
referenced a workshop called “The
Harmonisation of Quality Standards
for Transportation Fuels and Biofuels
in ASEAN,” which took place in
Bangkok in November 2014. At
the workshop, representatives of
ASEAN+6 nations agreed that a
working group or task force needs to
be established for the harmonisation
initiative. (ASEAN+6 includes
China, India, South Korea, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand.)
Ruengsak said that in order for
the harmonisation issue to move
forward, it must be taken up by the
Senior Officials Meeting on Energy
(SOME), a governing body that
reports to the ASEANMinisters
of Energy Meeting (AMEM).
The SOME is now reviewing this.
Should the SOME recommend
harmonisation, it would be included
in the ASEAN Plan of Action for
Energy Cooperation (APAEC) for
2016-2020.
CONTINUED
PRESSURE
FROMGROWING
AUTOMOTIVE
MARKET
Demand for personal vehicles is
rising steadily within ASEAN, and a
decline is not anticipated in the near
future.
Mohd Nazmi bin Mohd Nur,
head of the research unit at the
Malaysian Automotive Institute,
shared that in Malaysia, the
automotive industry (including
motorcycles) has contributed 3%
to 4% annually to the country’s
gross domestic product (GDP). “It
is expected,” Mohd Nur said, “that
the industry will continue to spur
Malaysian economic growth.”
Dasrul Chaniago, director of
mobile source pollution control
at the Ministry of Environment
and Forestry in Indonesia, showed
similar data for Indonesia, predicting
a steady upward slope of vehicle
ownership through 2030, with
the vast majority of vehicles being
motorcycles.
Across ASEAN, Ruengsak
showed that between 2004 and 2012,
total vehicle registration in ASEAN
has been growing at an average of
11% per year. In terms of vehicle
registration per 1,000 people, the
growth between 2004 and 2012 has
averaged 5% per year.
Unlike in Europe and North
America, the market for individual
vehicle ownership in ASEAN
has not yet been saturated. These
countries’ GDPs are still growing,
with more roads being built and new
construction projects being started.
The need for high-quality fuels is
great, and will only continue to grow,
because of continued growth in
vehicle population.
DISPARITIES WITHIN
ASEAN/FLEET
CHALLENGES
ASEAN countries, which are in
different stages of economic growth,
are also in different stages of fuel
quality standards.
They range from Euro
I-equivalent (Myanmar, Cambodia
and Brunei’s current gasoline
standards) to Euro V (Singapore’s
current diesel standard). The need
for harmonisation, Ruengsak said,
exists on three levels: economic,
environmental and social.
“Imagine how trade can be
easily done, imagine how product
exchange can be easily done,” he
said, highlighting the economic
side. Environmental benefits
include lower particulate matter and
greenhouse gas emissions, which
easily translate to health benefits.
According to Woo, the
disparities in terms of each
country’s standards, and therefore
the challenges to harmonisation,
mainly stem from the differences
among countries in terms of
affluence, types of vehicles and
GDP.
K.K. Gandhi, executive director,
technology, of the Society of Indian
Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM),
said that while policy harmonisation
is necessary, achieving it will not
be without its challenges and even
drawbacks.
India has implemented the
equivalent of Euro III across the
country, and Euro IV in about
40 cities. Since the fuel quality
requirements of Euro V and Euro VI
are the same, according to Gandhi,
many have suggested that India
transition directly to Euro VI by
2020. However, simply advancing to
the next Euro-equivalent standards,
Gandhi said, can damage the after-
treatment systems of cars.
Gandhi referenced a study
conducted in 2007 by India’s Central
Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
The summary, published in 2011,
echoes some of his concerns.
The Air Quality Monitoring,
Emission Inventory and Source
Apportionment Study was carried
out in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi,
Kanpur, Mumbai and Pune. Its
conclusions acknowledged that
“Bharat Stage (BS) III fuel [Euro III
equivalent] is available only in the
city and not even 20-30 km away
from city boundary.”
Additionally, many drivers
travelling in and out of the city
decide to refuel outside the city,
because the fuel there is cheaper. It
is also of lower quality, often with
higher sulphur content. This poses
a risk to newer vehicles, because
“very short distance exposure to
low-grade fuel quality may damage
these devices permanently and thus
making newer generation of in-use
vehicles not effective or even worse
than those of earlier generation
vehicles due to the failures of
emission control devices,” according
to the report.
The report ends by underscoring
the need for “one country, one fuel
quality and one regulation.”
This call for harmonisation
is part of a larger paradox: While
the answer to India’s disjointed
fuel supply is harmonisation, that
goal cannot be achieved without
incurring some of the same problems
that vehicles face now. Gandhi says
that India “needs to turn over the
fleet” because clean fuels are only
part of the solution to better air
quality, and the fleet in India and
ASEAN is very different from the
European examples being followed
with the Euro standards.
However, Gandhi stressed,
there are even more factors besides
fuels and vehicles. The CPCB report
mentions, and Gandhi echoed, that
at least during the 2007 study, PM10
emissions came from a variety of
sources besides road transport.
Other sources of PM10 include
re-suspension of dust on unpaved
roads, power plants and other
industrial sources, refuse burning
and the use of diesel generator sets.
Gandhi said, “[India has] so
many sources of pollution ... and a
shortage of electricity.”
HURDLES FOR
POLICYMAKERS
Eric Zussman, principal policy
researcher at the Institute for Global
Environmental Studies in Hayama,
Japan, joined the discussion via
webcast. In a working paper of which
he is a co-author, he examines the
gaps between policy and the practice
of diesel regulation in China, India,
Indonesia andThailand.
“Ministries of Environment face
an uphill battle,” he said, on the path
to widespread use of clean diesel,
partly because of fuel subsidies. The
subsidies offered by governments
for diesel fuel can, as Zussman puts
it, “lock in” refineries to producing a
fuel that is not up to the standards in
terms of sulphur content.
In October 2014, India took
K.K. Gandhi
