Gull New Zealand to concentrate on two grades of ethanol-blended petrol

Gull New Zealand confirmed that it will only blend ethanol with just two grades of petrol. Gull will drop adding ethanol to Regular 91 grade petrol. Gull New Zealand General Manager Dave Bodger says there is simply not enough ethanol to go around.
“We have been buying basically all the ethanol that Fonterra can make for us for some time now, and this has been supplemented with imported ethanol from sustainable sources. Balancing imported ethanol with Fonterra’s seasonal production has been tricky,” he said.
Ethanol will still be added to Gull Force 10 (a 98 octane premium petrol with 10% ethanol) and remain the primary ingredient in Gull Force Pro (an 85% ethanol blend).
“For the time being we will stop importing bulk ethanol (on a regular basis) and allocate the New Zealand produced fuel (supplemented by a smaller level of imports when necessary) across two ethanol blended grades rather than three,” he says.
“As a result we will cease blending ethanol into our Regular Plus grade fuel. Until now, 14 Gull sites offered Regular 91 that included ethanol. These sites will revert to selling Regular 91 petrol with no added ethanol,” Bodger says.
“New Zealand-made ethanol will now be only used in our premier products,” he adds.
Prices will not change at 14 of 53 sites currently selling Regular Plus, and Gull Force 10 will remain available at 49 of Gull’s 53-branded outlets. (February 15, 2013)