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Feature
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Written by Sabrina Deparine
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Friday, 29 May 2009 09:40 |
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Page views: 1900 |
After catching up with Petron early this week, BiofuelsHub now focuses the spotlight on Shell Philippines. Shell Philippines deserves some recognition for encouraging the Filipinos to patronize biofuels. This is commendable since Shell is considered as one of the “Big Three” in the Philippine petroleum industry, along with Petron and Caltex. As such, it serves as a good example which others will hopefully follow.
Since April 1, 2009, Shell gasoline stations around Metro Manila have been offering ethanol-blended gasoline in three variants namely Super Unleaded, Super Premium, and V-Power. These gasoline products are blended with 10% ethanol. The company continues to offer regular gasoline for vehicles that are not compatible with ethanol-blended gasoline.
However, the rollout of ethanol-blended gasoline in Shell gas stations is not nationwide. In fact, it is only available in five locations including: Metro Manila, Batangas, Cebu, Davao, and Poro. In our coordination with Mr. Andrew Co, Technical Advisor for Shell, he said that the rollout of ethanol-blended gasoline is in compliance to the Biofuels Act of 2006. According to the said law, by 2011, all gasoline fuel distributed and sold by oil companies in the market should have a 10% blend of bioethanol by volume. The Biofuels Act of 2006 was signed last January 2007 and took effect May of the same year. Technically, Shell is two years early in its compliance, staying ahead of its competitors.
When asked if the company has received any comments or complaints about their ethanol-blended gasoline products, Mr. Co said that there was only one complaint, so far. It involves a fuel injected car that is not compatible with E10. In this case, Mr. Co advises the public to consult their manuals or car manufacturers first as to whether their vehicle model is compatible to E10 gasoline or not before loading it into their engines.
By far, Shell Philippines has not conducted any field tests yet on their ethanol-blended gasoline products. Mr. Co said that there is no need for this since there is already a study conducted by the Mercant Petroleum Institute. Also, field tests are now being conducted in the United States on their ethanol-blended gasoline products.
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