National standard No.3 to implement from July 1st

With the deadline of implementation of the national emission standard No.3 approaching, automotive oil standards is becoming the difficult problem that must be solved. A NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) official said: "the standard of 93# gasoline is implemented very well, but it is not sure out of Beijing district. Diesel is in trouble, now even without fuel standards. "According to China Petrochemical Company that this year Beijing will suspend 90# petrol supply, and introduce 98# gasoline with higher grade of octane. Thus, once the vehicle that are used to high-standard gasoline out of such big cities Beijing, it  will face the risk of the gasoline quality.

Technically, the oil standard is not a problem. Shan Weiguo, director of China Petrol Economic Technical Center, said: "For the most important sulfur emission standards, it is required that prior to the Olympics, sulfur content of oil would not be more than 350 units in Beijing, now Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou have already achieved. However, the implementation across the country requires oil refineries improve technology and increase desulfurization equipment, and not anyone could support such an investment."

"Making all the oil in the country meets national standard No.3, I think that can not be realized." A spokesman of the News Office of China Petrochemical Company said, "Sinopec could entirely meet the requirements with the increased costs, but some small oil refineries could not possibly increase such a high cost. So we are very concerned about how the Ministry of Commerce and Reform Commission intend to solve this problem. "

An  experts from NDRC disclosed that, currently, there are at least 20% of the oil from the small oil refineries out of CNPC and Sinopec Group system, and eight years ago, this figure is 40%, and is much higher in the western region. The Commission has not found an effective way to solve the problem when facing the localism protection. In other words, the fact of non-uniformed oil quality will still exist.

But in the face of oil quality problems, Shanghai has decided to implement national standard No.3 from July 1st. On Jan 12th, Shanghai held the meeting of three-year environmental protection plan, which requires that the newly licensed buses and taxi must implement the national standard No.3 from July 1st.