Enterprises are ready to supply E5 gasoline from January 1, 2018.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong chaired the meeting "Promoting the implementation of the biofuel roadmap" with provincial and municipal Departments of Industry and Trade and corporations and enterprises trading in E5 gasoline.

This is a step to implement the Government's Roadmap for applying the blending ratio of biofuels (NLSH) with traditional fuels "from January 1, 2018, only E5 and RON95 gasoline will be traded".

At the meeting, the focal points, general agents, and petroleum dealers affirmed that at this point, they are basically ready for the mass sale of E5 RON92 bio-fuel nationwide. Accordingly, businesses have prepared well the supply of E5 gasoline and blending materials, and agents and petroleum stores are preparing to clean the tanks.

A representative of the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) said that E5 gasoline will be sold widely at the group's retail stores from December 15 (2 weeks ahead of the Prime Minister's directive).

Mr. Vu Kien Chinh - General Director of Tung Lam Company Limited - the unit that is supplying almost all of the E100 raw materials for blending E5 gasoline, affirmed that with 2 factories currently producing at a capacity of 90 - 100%, the company has a surplus of E100 output compared to current demand.

“With several E100 factories nearing completion, meeting the demand for E100 to produce E5 gasoline is not a concern. Importing E100 to blend E5 gasoline has also been considered by petroleum key enterprises when the domestic E100 supply is not guaranteed,” said Mr. Chinh.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong affirmed that after more than 4 years of implementing E5 gasoline business in the market and especially successfully in some localities such as Hai Phong, Quang Ngai, Can Tho... it has brought practical economic and social benefits, no people have complained about the quality of E5 gasoline. These are valuable experiences for other localities and provinces to refer to in order to effectively implement the Government's Biofuel Roadmap...

To ensure the correct implementation of the roadmap for converting RON92 gasoline to E5 gasoline, Mr. Hoang Quoc Vuong affirmed that the E100 and E5 sources have been well prepared by key enterprises in terms of quantity and quality. According to the set roadmap, the preparation of storage tanks at general agents, agents, and gas stations has been and is being carried out.

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade continues to direct the strengthening of market information work, and directs market management units to strengthen inspection and supervision work in localities so that the sale of RON92 gasoline absolutely no longer exists,” the Deputy Minister emphasized.

At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the price difference between E5 and RON95 gasoline is too low. It will continue to work with the Ministry of Finance to review taxes and fees to further reduce the selling price of E5 gasoline.

Removing difficulties to deploy mass business of E5 gasoline

Ms. Tran Thi Phuong Lan - Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade shared that Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade is conducting a survey of businesses in the area to urge the implementation and conversion of E5 gasoline trading. Most businesses have arranged half of the pumps and pump columns in their stores to trade E5 gasoline, the rest trade RON 95.

By the end of November 2017, about 250 retail gasoline stores in the area had developed a Plan to implement the Roadmap for applying the blending ratio of biofuels with traditional fuels, ensuring that from January 1, 2018, they will only sell E5 gasoline and RON 95 gasoline.

According to the report on the implementation of the roadmap for applying the blending ratio of biofuels with traditional fuels in Hanoi by the Department of Industry and Trade, there are currently 489 petrol stations, of which 175 are operating and have completed the conversion to sell E5 petrol. The consumption of E5 petrol reaches over 10,000m3/month, accounting for about 9% of the total petrol consumption.

Currently, there are 4 E5 gasoline mixing stations of major traders supplying Hanoi. In particular, ensuring the supply of E100 for mixing stations is still facing many difficulties, with only Tung Lam Company (Binh Duong) being the sole supplier.

In addition, the source of E100 to Hanoi's key enterprises for blending must be transported by car from the Central and Southern regions to Hanoi, so the transportation cost is high. The mechanisms and policies to encourage the production and trading of E5 gasoline are still in the process of being completed, so enterprises have not received any support from state management agencies...

In addition, despite much propaganda, consumers have not proactively chosen to use E5 gasoline, partly due to concerns about quality. The price difference between E5 gasoline and Ron92 is not much (about 26 VND/liter), so it has not attracted people to use it...

Therefore, Ms. Tran Thi Phuong Lan informed that the time to implement the E5 gasoline consumption roadmap is only about 3 weeks. The most important issue at this time is to strengthen propaganda work so that consumers choose E5 gasoline.

Ms. Lan also said that the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade chairing today's meeting with the Departments of Industry and Trade in the North have shown the Ministry's high determination in implementing the roadmap nationwide. In the coming time, to deploy E5 gasoline, propaganda work must be prioritized to raise consumer awareness. Propaganda must be implemented synchronously, especially on the media. In addition, key enterprises and agents must actively participate.

"In my opinion, there must be a directive from the Ministry to key enterprises from today, to finalize the RON 92 inventory and the time to not supply/import RON 92 and switch to E5" - Ms. Lan proposed.

In addition, Ms. Phuong Lan proposed that the environmental fee has not been approved by the National Assembly, so the price has not been fundamentally resolved. Currently, the price difference between E5 and RON 95 is only over 1,000 VND/liter. Therefore, it is recommended that the inter-ministerial research be conducted on supporting businesses in the first 2 months so that they can make profits as before, thereby maintaining business conditions and successfully implementing the above roadmap...

According to Economic & Urban Newspaper