Euro 4M Grade Fuel To Arrive In Malaysia By.... 2016

Malaysia's Department of Environment will be submitting proposals for Euro 4M grade petrol and diesel to the Malaysian cabinet by the second quarter of 2011, according to an unnamed government official who spoke to Platts last week. This follows Malaysia's upgrade to the Euro 2M standard on September 1, 2009.

Upon the proposal's approval, the Ministry of Finance will finalise the Euro 4M fuel's pricing, after which the government will instruct all local oil companies to sell only Euro 4M fuel. Malaysians may however only get to use the higher grade fuel in 2016 as the domestic refiners will be granted a five-year period to carry out the necessary upgrade works.

The report says that the Department of Environment has proposed reducing the maximum permissible sulphur content in petrol and diesel by 90 percent from the current 500 ppm to 50 ppm. The maximum benzene content in petrol has been set at 1% or 3.5%, compared with the current 5%.

Choosing 3.5% will mean that the Euro 4M fuel will fail to meet the 1% guideline required by the Euro 4 standard. Malaysia's oil industry, the report says, found the 1% level too expensive to adhere to, and successfully lobbied the Department of Environment for more leeway.

AboutSeow Yaohan

Seow Yao Han strives to bring you the latest and the most comprehensive information on cars available in Malaysia. But it's never easy for him to talk and write cars in this part of the world because what you lust after is often not what you drive home. When the euphoria of test-driving that branded, super-expensive sports car dies down, he just goes home in his less-than-glamorous ride.