November 18, 2010 at the Ministry of Energy

     Ministry of Energy gathered up 14 CEOs from major automobile companies around the world to declare the use of only one grade of B5 diesel, starting at the beginning of 2011. The ministry insisted that there is no problem concerning the raw material for B5 diesel production and the quality. The diesel car users are guaranteed that the use of B5 diesel is good for cars and this will help Thai farmers to gain more salary. 

    The Energy Minister, MD.Wannarat Chanukul has invited CEOs from the leading automobile companies in Thailand such as Chevrolet, Ford, Hino, Hyundai, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota, Isuzu, Volvo Car, Volvo Truck and Bus, and Fuso Truck to participate in the meeting for the declaration of the use of B5 diesel around the country at the beginning of 2011, witnessed by all the CEOs from the invited companies and the press.

     After the meeting, MD.Wannarat disclosed that this is considered as the project opening for the use of only one grade of B5 diesel (combination of diesel and 5% bio-diesel) in the country. The Energy Ministry will prepare for an official announcement nationwide. In the meantime, confirmed from all the corresponding sectors, there are no problems concerning the quantity of the raw palm oil from the domestic consumption, quality and standard of oil, price structure of B5 diesel and the readiness of the major oil dealers. This guaranteed the starting of the use of B5 within the year 2011.

     For more confidence in the B5 diesel quality which will be used nationwide at the beginning of 2011, the Energy Ministry received confirmations from the CEOs of car makers which participated in the meeting that all the companies, both from Europe and Asia, agreed to support the use of only one grade B5 diesel in Thailand which has quality according to the standard issued by the Department of Energy Business (DOEB). The B5 diesel can be used with all types of diesel cars.

     MD.Wannarat added that nowadays, according to the preliminary estimation, about 5,400 million liters of high speed B5 diesel has been sold during January-October 2010, on average 17.8 million liters per day. These were 0.89 million Liters per day of the B100 bio-diesel, while the consumption of B3 diesel during June-October 2010 is about 29.1 million liters, on average 0.87 million liters per day. Totally, the use of B100 diesel at the present time is 1.76 million liters per day, a 13 percents increasing from the last year duration. Concerning the B5 diesel oil stations, there are totally 3,794 stations – 966 PTT, 1,032 Bangchak, 48 PTT Retail (CONOCO), 44 Petronas, 1 TransTec En, 75 Rayong Pure, 236 Chevron, 588 Shell, 128 Susco, 237 PT, 428 Esso, 1 Thaioil, 1 PC Siam and 9 IRPC. According to the production process, nowadays there are 14 bio-diesel producers with the production capacity registered to DOEB at the rate of 5.9 million liters per day.