‘Provide consumers with option’

The mandate for the oil companies to make available diesel fuel with more sulfur content than are generally accepted at present has more to do with expanding consumer choices than on anything else, the Department of Energy said on Friday.

In a live broadcast interview, DoE spokeperson Felix B. Fuentebella also said the decision, which has attracted adverse comment and reaction from some in the riding public, also has more to do with extending consumers a less expensive alternative fuel for their motor vehicles.

Fuentebella acknowledged that allowing the oil companies to import so-called euro 2-compliant fuel has left many motorists and observers chuckling given that everywhere in the world the emission standard had been raised for vehicles to run under euro 5 or euro 4 levels.

But according to Fuentebella, euro-2 compliant fuel will extend to vehicle owners of 3- to 5-year old cars an “alternative menu” of fuel more affordable to them than owners of more recent vehicle models.

“This will give them a wider choice of fuel,” the DoE official said.

He said the reason why the DoE supported the importation of euro 2 standard fuel is because motor vehicle models from 2013 to 2015 require so-called catalytic converters to help them burn pollutants such as sulfur mixed in the fuel. Such models can run on euro 5 or even euro 6 standards now required of vehicles manufactured from 2016 and more recent years because these are fuel with significantly lower sulfur content.

The only reason catalytic converters are required has to do with burning the pollutants in the fuel mix as these are harmful to the environment and to people.

Allowing euro 2 fuel to be sold again should also help government moderate inflation which has breached the target set by the country’s economic managers, Fuentebella said.