Petroleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa) has defended a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal to accommodate Venezuelan gasoline imports as part of the agency's reformulated gasoline (RFG) regulations.
The special rule for gasoline imports, expected to apply only to Venezuelan shipments, has been criticized by U.S. congressmen and refiners (OGJ, May 2, p. 54).
EPA WILL accept written comments on the proposed rule until June 23.
PROPOSED RULE
The RFG rule requires each refiner or importer to keep conventional gasolines as clean as the gasoline produced or imported in 1990 to prevent refineries from dumping "dirty" gasoline byproducts from the RFG refining process into their conventional gasolines. The quality of a refinery's gasoline in 1990 will become its baseline.
In 1998 all refiners must leave the baseline and comply with a "complex model" for RFG that limits levels of volatile organic chemicals, toxics, and nitrogen oxide emissions.
The rules require U.S. refiners to set their baselines using test data from 1990 gasoline and assigns importers a baseline that approximates the average quality of 1990 U.S. gasoline.
Under the proposed rule, subject to a number of conditions, EPA would allow refiners outside the U.S.-mainly in Venezuela-to ask for their own baseline if they have supporting data.
U.S. VIEW
Robert Yancy, Jr., Ashland Petroleum Co. president, testified for the National Petroleum Refiners Association and American Petroleum Institute at an EPA hearing. Those groups object to the Clinton administration's tampering with the final rule on RFG to accommodate Venezuela. He said, "The domestic refining industry needs certainty if it is to have the new, clean fuels required by the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments in the marketplace by Jan. 1, 1995."
Yancy said the proposed rule would allow Pdvsa to export gasoline with an average olefins content two to three times higher than the CAA baseline, worsening U.S. air quality in the Northeast. Pdvsa claims it supplies 14% of the gasoline used in the Boston area and 8% in the New York City area.
PDVSA'S DEFENSE
Otto Rodriguez, Pdvsa refining planning manager, argued Venezuela wants the same regulatory treatment U.S. refiners will get. He said Pdvsa is investing more than $1 billion at its refineries, contracting mostly with U.S. engineering and construction companies, to produce RFG that conforms to U.S. requirements.
"Some have attempted to argue that if foreign refiners are allowed their own baselines, Venezuela will be able to export 'dirty' gasoline to the U.S. Such an allegation is false and misleading.
"There are, in fact, no 'clean' or 'dirty' reformulated gasolines. All gasoline will need to be reformulated according to EPA standards to comply with the emissions standards.
"Venezuelan gasoline formed part of the gasoline pool consumed in the U.S. in 1990. Therefore, Pdvsa's compliance with the same rules imposed on U.S. refiners will result in an overall reduction in pollutants compared to 1990 levels.
"Indeed, there will be no increase in nitrogen oxide emissions from Pdvsa's reformulated gasoline compared to its own 1990 gasoline quality, which is the test for nitrogen oxide that U.S. refiners must meet."
Rodriguez observed Venezuela exports only unleaded regular gasoline to the U.S. and, when compared with U.S. regular gasoline with which it competes, it has the same or lower sulfur and olefins content.
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