Seaoil to offer first Euro-5 diesel in RP

Seaoil Philippines Inc. has entered into a $30-million supply contract for the sale and distribution of the low emission Euro-5 diesel product, making it the first oil firm in the country to comply with the highest European emission standards.

Seaoil president and chief executive Francis Glenn Yu said they have forged an agreement with SK Networks, a major South Korean trading house, for the supply of Euro-5 diesel over the next six months.

At present, diesel being sold in the Philippines is only at Euro-2 standard.

SK Networks, a member of SK Corp., one of the biggest South Korean global conglomerates, is a leading player in the global trading of oil, gas, coal, steel and chemical products.

Yu explained that the European emission standards consist of sets of requirements defining the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of new vehicles sold in the European Union member states.

These standards specify the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent fuel regulations requiring a minimum of 10 parts per million sulfur content and diesel cetane number (CN) of 51.

Reduced sulfur is a key enabler in realizing reduced tail pipe emissions while CN is a measure of the combustion quality of diesel fuel during compression ignition or the fuel’s ignition delay. Thus, the higher the CN, the shorter the ignition delay period.

Generally, diesel engines run well with a CN from 40 to 55. Hence, higher speed diesels operate more effectively with higher CN fuels.

Yu said Euro-5 diesel would further boost Seaoil’s product line that already boasts of several pioneering efforts.

“The company started the use of biofuels and other alternative fuels in the country with the introduction of the use of ethanol as a gasoline blend,” he added.

In 2005, it made the first ethanol-blended gasoline, or E10, available to the public, two years ahead of the implementation of the Biofuels Act.

The law states that all fuel products must be two-percent blended with biofuels within the year, increasing to a 10-percent mix by 2011.

Seaoil currently offers a 10-percent blend of ethanol in all its gasoline products as well as a one-percent blend in all its diesel products.