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The Future use of unleaded gas in Venezuela
Manuel Pulido M
The price adjustment experienced last month by the gasoline domestic
market in our country, has allowed that, besides generating additional
revenue for the treasury through consumption tax, there will be
also more coming from income tax, since this activity has once
more become profitable for the oil industry, with a net benefit
of approximately 7.5% on sales (Bs.4/liter), after costs and taxes.
The adopted measure opens also new ways leading to the domestic use of unleaded gasoline. This kind of fuel's incorporation to the market has been planned for 1999, at the level of a work group made of representatives of the agencies involved with this decision, the Ministry of Development (Trade and Industry), the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MTC), the Ministry of Renewable National Resources (MARNR), Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), Ministry of Health and Social Assistance (MSAS), FONTUR [the Tourism Fund], and Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). Lead has been recognized for a long time a toxic element, quite harmful to health. Its toxicity, however, has been evidenced generally through uses being different form high octane gasoline additive. This is the case with drinkable water pipes, lead welding in food metal containers, white paints with a lead base, table-service decorations, lead handling in battery manufacturing, munitions, toys, among other. During the sixties, United States authorities reacted against the serious problems in the quality of some U.S. cities' air, that were the result of toxic emissions from automotive systems, consisting mainly of unburnt hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, ozone, toxic compound derived from hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. To solve this problem, and after an arduous study process, that country's authorities took the option of adapting a small equipment know as catalyst converter. This equipment would be inserted into the automobile's exhaust pipe, hoping that it would substantially reduce the level of toxic compounds from automobile emissions. When implementing this solution, it was found that the tetraethyllead used to increase the gasoline's octane level, deactivates (poisons) the catalyzer, making it thus necessary to eliminate lead from gasoline's to let the catalyst converter operate. With time, the popular confusion arose that lead had been eliminated in the United States because it was harmful to health, when in reality it was eliminated in order to allow that the elected catalyzers could work adequately and minimize the compounds' emission, the product of the combustion thus being health damaging. Besides the United States, other Western European and Latin American countries have adopted the use of unleaded gasolines. As of 1992, of the 900 million cubic meters of gasoline sold on a world level, 72% did not have leaded additives. Although the mode of introduction presents variations among these countries, the main motivation has been linked to the world tendency for air quality control programs, a concern for the impact of lead emission on public health and image considerations. Venezuela has been gradually reducing its gasolines' lead contents -without lowering their qualities- and this has allowed, with considerable success, to control the environmental impact and lead emissions. Caracas, for instance, has observed a reduction in lead contents in gasoline, from 0,42 gr/liter in 1988 to 0.66 gr/liter in 1988 and 0.37 gr/liter in 1993. On another hand, the supply of tetraethyllead, the additive needed to meet the automotive park's octane requirements, becomes more expensive each year, and its few manufacturers on a world level are already conscious of this product's declining nature. Lead concentration in the air is regulated in our country, as well as in the rest of the world, and the Venezuelan standard is comparable to the most strict being used in other countries, such as those of the European Union and the United States. This standard provides that the maximum concentration of lead in the air should not exceed of 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter of air during 50% of the measurements made in a period of 24 hours, nor exceed of 2.0 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air in 95% of the measurements. Measurements by MARNR in 1994 revealed that the lead readings in the air do not exceed the standard, with the exception of some instances of occurrence in Caracas, such as in the El Silencio downtown sector. These air quality evaluations are being done on a permanent basis; lead levels in the blood are also being constantly measured by the Ministry of Health. The U.S. E.P.A. standard provides that lead levels in the blood should not exceed 10 micrograms/deciliter in adults and 10 micrograms/deciliter in children. One should point out that, as to other components of gasolines, that, when combusting, could cause air pollution, the Venezuelan commercial gasoline brands compare favorably with those from other countries. In our case, only olefins show figures higher than the North American ones under the 1990 Clean Air Act which led to reformulated gasolines. In this respect, the substantial investment made in Venezuela to adapt the refineries makes it possible to export the modified product. The use of unleaded gasoline in vehicles is subject to the indispensable condition that these be equipped with the catalyst converter; this, as it has been said, reduces the gasoline combustion emission gases' toxicity to tolerable levels. The first catalyst converters appeared in 1975 in the United States and, so did unleaded gas with them; leaded gas was definitely eliminated in 1996 after a 20 year process, during which time both types of gasoline were available. In 1981, all new cars in the United States met for the firs time the standard, having a catalyst converter, this time a more sophisticated one, with more active catalysts, with the addition of sensors to optimize oxygen input to the combustion. One may affirm, accordingly, that the starting point for the incorporation of unleaded gas should be the government approved automotive policy, it then being the refiners' role to adequately satisfy the new user requirements. It was mentioned that it will be around the year 1999 when all throughout Venezuelan geography there will be access to unleaded gasoline. Although the three year term seems to be long, something should be borne in mind, which the great effort required, at several levels, in order to adopt a measure such as this in an orderly manner throughout the entire territory. Among the tasks to be performed we have, first, the establishment of policies allowing for the gradual introduction of unleaded, with a parallel supply of leaded gas for cars without the catalyst converter for all their useful life, within a reasonable time period, following other countries' experience. Once the decision should have been adopted, there should be a reconditioning of tanks, connections and dispensing machines in the 1,600 service stations throughout the country, in order that, on the day when the unleaded gas is introduced they may able to offer this new product with at least two grades of traditional leaded gasoline. The same importance should be given to the required modifications in the tankers providing coating-trade transportation, the ground transportation cistern trucks and the adaptations and the distribution plants where they are serviced. The Ministries of Transportation and of the Environment shall be in charge of the adoption of standards and other provisions regulating the matter, as well as of the sanctions for incompliance. As to this issue, there is a growing concern -something hardly found in our country- for the need of periodical revisions of the automotive park, to ensure that it complies with established standards, specially as to good combustion of hydrocarbons being used. Perhaps it is worth repeating that the introduction of unleaded gas in Venezuela must be part of a joint effort, with the participation both of the national government, as issuer of the policy to be followed, as of the oil and automotive industries, the makers of vehicles and fuel being used by them. The consumer should be concerned also, since, after all, he is the services' user and, accordingly, he must get a high quality product. July, 1996 |
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