Methanol Gasoline Additive Standard to Start in May

China became the largest crude oil importer in 2017 and the second largest importer of LNG. In particular, China’s crude oil import dependence degree reached around 70% in 2017. In the meantime, the environmental pollution is limiting the industry development in China. For the energy security and environmental protection, China has carried out some measures which have impacted China’s gasoline and diesel markets, such as the frequent quality upgrade of gasoline and diesel, the environmental protection inspection, the promotion of ethanol gasoline and so on.

On October 14, 2017, China issued the National Standard of the Additive of Methanol Gasoline for Vehicle. And according to the schedule, the Standard will be executed from May 1, 2018. The Standard regulates the specific indexes of methanol gasoline additives. Actually, China started the promotion of methanol gasoline in 1980s. But by now, the methanol gasoline has not been widely accepted in China. One important obstacle is that there is not a specific standard of the indexes of methanol gasoline and methanol gasoline additives. The new Standard will support the promotion of methanol gasoline. And the methanol gasoline promotion will ease the oversupply of gasoline in China. For the long term, the new Standard will help to upgrade China’s oil refining industry and the methanol industry. But it is believed that there will be a long way to go. The actual impacts on the industries will mostly depend on the governments’ implementation attitude.