HARARE – The government has raised the mandatory ethanol blending for unleaded petrol from five percent to 10 percent with effect from April 25, saying the move will minimally lower the import bill on fuel.
The blending threshold review is a response to increased output by Green Fuel, a company owned by Billy Conrad Rautenbach and which enjoys a monopoly in supplying ethanol to the fuel industry, an official said.
The directive to raise the level of mandatory blending was announced in an extraordinary government gazette published on Thursday.
“The consequences of this approval is that all licensed operators shall from the date of publication of the general notice be mandated to sell unleaded petrol blended at E10,” the notice said.
The government first ordered ethanol blending in 2013, and the country’s fuel was being sold with 15 percent ethanol until January this year when that was lowered to five percent because of reduced capacity at Chisumbanje-based Green Fuel.
“Because of the improved availability, the government has increased the level to 10 percent. This increase will obviously impact on our fuel import bill, although in a minimal way,” said Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chief executive officer Eddington Mazambani.
Green Fuel says it now has capacity to produce 90 million litres of the ethanol blend, up from 40 million it was producing in 2016.
Zera says it monitors the blending levels through unannounced site visits to ensure the blending ratios are kept.
Fuel companies can acquire already blended petrol from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, or carry out their own blending. Five of the 11 licenced fuel companies have blending capacity at their sites in Harare.
Studies have found that ethanol blended fuels cover less mileage. The E10 blend has a drop in energy value of between 3.5-5 percent.
