South Africa to put forward new fuel specifications

South African Energy Minister Dipuo Peters has announced a draft specification that will meet the new European Euro 5 fuel emission standards. This new legislation, if implemented, will require South African refineries to make some expensive upgrades to their plants. The new specifications will require that the allowable levels of benzene in gasoline and diesel fuel be reduced from 5% to 1%. Sulfur will also have to be reduced from 500 parts per million (PPM) to 10 PPM. The goal is to have cleaner fuels to be available to the public by 2013, though refiners will have until 2017 to upgrade their plants. (March 9,2011)