Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade: There are almost no complaints about E10 gasoline

E10 RON 95-III biofuel will be sold nationwide from June 1, completely replacing mineral gasoline.

At the Government press conference on November 4, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Luong Hoang Thai said that after 5 months, the Ministry received 315 comments about E10 gasoline, mainly in June and July. In the past two months, Mr. Thai said, this agency “received almost no additional feedback related to E10 gasoline”.

The Deputy Minister reiterated the management agency’s view of increasing market supervision, measurement and quality of gasoline. During the recent inspection process, no systematic violations were found.

After the adjustment on November 3, each liter of E10 RON 95-III gasoline was at 23,230 VND, on par with the price threshold in August. Compared to the end of February – the time of the Middle East conflict – the price of this item was more than 3,400 VND per liter.

Regarding supply, leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the market and distribution system remained stable, with no imbalance in supply and demand for biofuel products.

Up to now, there are 11 businesses licensed to blend and mix biofuel, with a total capacity of 1.41 million m3 a month. This level is about 0.4 million m3 higher than monthly consumption demand (about 1 million m3).

The domestic E100 ethanol supply continues to be maintained from three factories. According to Mr. Thai, stable demand is expected to help some factories that once stopped production restore operations, create more supply and possibly promote the formation of new production capacity.

Cumulatively from June 1 to October 27, E10 gasoline accounted for more than 92% of biofuel consumption, while E5 accounted for nearly 8%.

Regarding the environmental impact and emission reduction of E10 gasoline, Mr. Thai said that the implementation time has only been about 5 months, and the monitoring results at each location are still different and do not reflect the systematic nature.

He cited joint research showing that, in theory, replacing about 1 million cubic meters of mineral gasoline per year with E100 ethanol could reduce about 2.5 million tons of CO2 emissions. However, the actual impact needs to continue to be measured in the near future.

Phuong Dung