Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has started production of gasoline that complies with new regulatory specifications for fuel by Brazil’s Agência Nacional do Petróleo e Biocombustível (ANP) not scheduled to take effect in 2022 (OGJ Online, June 24, 2020).
All refineries in Petrobras’s refining system are now producing and distributing gasoline with an octane rating of 93 research octane number (RON), exceeding the first-phase requirement of ANP’s Resolução ANP 807/20 that gasoline, whether produced in Brazil or imported, must have a minimum octane rating of 92 RON, as well as a minimum specific mass of 715 kg/cu m, by Aug. 3, 2020, Petrobras said on July 29. Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has started production of gasoline that complies with new regulatory specifications for fuel by Brazil’s Agência Nacional do Petróleo e Biocombustível (ANP) not scheduled to take effect in 2022 (OGJ Online, June 24, 2020).
In addition to surpassing the regulation’s first-phase requirements, Petrobras refineries’ production of RON 93 gasoline already meets Resolução ANP 807/20’s future second-phase implementation, which mandates both domestically produced and imported gasoline volumes to have a minimum octane rating of RON 93 by January 2022.
Brazil’s enactment of Resolução ANP 807/20’s RON requirement comes as part of an effort to bring its gasoline pool into conformance with specifications already adopted in Europe and more appropriate to new engine technologies already being introduced in the country. Alongside increasing fuel efficiency by reducing gasoline consumption by 5%/km on average, the regulation’s specific mass requirement also makes it more difficult to cheat consumers by using product-adulterating low-quality solvents and naphthas during formulation of the high-octane fuel, Petrobras said.
While the operator did not disclose refinery-specific details regarding production of RON 93, of its 13 major refineries, 12 refineries produce and distribute gasoline throughout the Brazilian market, according to the latest data from Petrobras.
Tables 1-2 list Petrobras’s gasoline-producing refineries and the markets which they serve.
