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Unauthorized sales stops ethanol fuel in its tracks
The trial sale of ethanol fuel will be stopped as its trader was selling it to customers not stipulated under the project, trade authorities said Saturday.
The fuel, known as Gasohol E5, was to be sold only to taxis belonging to member companies of the Hanoi Taxi Association, but it was also being bought by the public at large.
The PetroVietnam Biogas Joint Stock Company (PVB), a PV Oil subsidiary which imports and supplies the fuel, had not completed the procedures to sell the fuel to the public at large, and will have to halt sales of the product, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu told Thanh Nien.
Gasohol E5, a bio-fuel alternative made from cassava or sugarcane, was priced at VND16,500 (US$1) per liter, VND500 lower than the regular A92 fuel price of VND17,000 ($1.03) per liter.
PV Oil, a subsidiary of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, rolled out Gasohol E5 on a trial basis in two gas stations in Hanoi on Monday, September 15.
Thanh Nien had found a number of motorbikes and cars queuing up to try out the new fuel at the two gas stations on Thai Thinh and Hoang Quoc Viet streets at 10 a.m. on Monday.
Up until 7 p.m. Monday, the two stations had sold 2,000 liters of Gasohol E5 out of the total of 20,000 liters of fuel purchased.
Le Thanh Thai, Head of the PVB’s Business Department, also Saturday cited the Deputy Minister as saying that the government was still in the process of setting out required standards for Gasohol E5.
Thai said PVB would abide by the directive and await future permission from the government to trade the fuel.
Gasohol E5, comprised of 5 percent ethanol and 95 percent A92 fuel, is partly made from ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is widely used in cars in Brazil.
Thanhnien
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