25% gasoline import cut eyed
SANTIAGO ENDORSES BIOFUELS BILL
THAT PUSHES ETHANOL BLEND THIS YEAR

PHILIPPINE gasoline imports are expected to drop by a fourth under a plan through which the country would begin using 10-percent bioethanol blended gasoline in 2010, a government official said Tuesday.
       Gasoline imports would drop by 400 million liters, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., sponsor of the biofuels bill, said in a phone interview. The country imported 9.93 million barrels of gasoline last year. Each barrel is equivalent to 159 liters, according to data from the Oil Industry Management Bureau.
       “Many players in the industry are likely to offer ethanol-blended gasoline even before it’s mandated by law,” Petron Corp. spokeswoman Virginia Ruivivar said in a cell phone text message Tuesday. Petron, the country’s biggest oil refiner, will begin testing the market this year to determine the demand for bioethanol-blended gasoline.
       The government is pushing for the enactment of the bill boosting the country’s biofuel production capacity amid rising interest in the blended fuels after crude oil costs soared. The country imports 96 percent of its fuel requirements for motor vehicles.
       Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, began testing the market for 10-percent bioethanol blended gasoline when it started selling the product in one of its stations in Manila on May 11. Petron will offer the same product in 20 stations within the year, Ruivivar said. “It’s a new product, we have to wait and see how the market receives it,” she said.
       The Senate began Tuesday floor deliberations on the biofuels bill . By the end of the year, the use of automotive fuel blended with ethanol may become law if the energetic push Sen. Miriam Santiago is giving her bill mandating such use is successful. This affects some 5.2 million car owners.
       Santiago, energy committee chairman, said the proposed Biofuels Act was designed to promote the use of indigenous renewable fuels to minimize dependence on imported oil and increase energy self-sufficiency, reduce negative environmental impact caused by fossil fuels, and support the agricultural sector. Bloomberg, B. Fernandez