ALL petrol sold in Zimbabwe must be blended with ethanol before sale, the Government announced yesterday.
From next week, unblended fuel being sold in some service stations as “unleaded petrol” has to be blended with the same laid down percentage of ethanol as all other petrol.
This was announced yesterday by Energy and Power Development Minister Edgar Moyo in Statutory Instrument 150 of 2024 Petroleum (Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous Ethanol with Unleaded Petrol) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 6).
The minister made the regulations after consultation with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority using his powers under the Petroleum Act.
The amendment repeals the definition of petrol subject to ethanol blending in the 2013 principal regulations and substitutes a simple: “These regulations shall apply to all unleaded petrol imported into Zimbabwe.”
As all petrol imported into Zimbabwe is unleaded, this means all petrol imported into Zimbabwe must be blended.
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There is no leaded petrol in Zimbabwe as this was phased out in 2006 and none has been imported into or sold in the country for 18 years now, but blending with ethanol has been compulsory since 2011 as part of national measures to encourage use of biofuels.
However, there was always a group of motorists who for personal reasons, mistakenly believed that blended fuel could damage their car. A number of retailers then decided to work their way round the ban on unblended petrol by finding a loophole and then calling it “unleaded petrol”, even though all petrol was unleaded.
That loophole has been closed.
Ethanol blending started off as voluntary but became compulsory with consumer resistance. The switch to blended petrol came for a number of reasons: reduction of petroleum imports, reducing carbon footprint, creating extra markets for sugarcane farmers and creating new jobs for those in the value chain.
Biofuels do not add to the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere when they burn, since the replacement sugarcane takes the equivalent carbon out as it grows.
Meanwhile, ZERA has warned fuel retailers against selling contaminated fuel to motorists following the conviction and fining of 12 fuel stations who had been caught on the wrong side of the law.
Of the 12, one had its operating licence cancelled for selling contaminated fuel.
ZERA said it was intensifying fuel quality monitoring and testing at fuel retail sites countrywide and these inspections are set to also ensure compliance with the new Statutory Instrument.
“Selling fuel which does not meet the quality specifications is an offence. The net is closing in on operators involved in the supply and retail of fuel that does not meet fuel quality specifications and the operators listed below have been sanctioned for the fuel quality offences committed during the first half of 2024.
“Information on fuel retail sites convicted of selling contaminated fuel is already in the public domain and ZERA shall be publishing it on its website www.zera.co.zw on a regular basis.
“Motorists experiencing vehicle performance problems after fuelling or refuelling at any filling station are urged to quickly contact ZERA to enable the Authority to take relevant samples from the concerned site for testing,” said ZERA.
