THE government has introduced new regulations that ban unleaded petrol, ostensibly to promote the use of environmentally friendly fuel and reduce the country’s reliance on imported fuel.
Government yesterday announced the ban through Statutory Instrument (SI) 150 of 2024.
According to the SI, Energy and Power Development minister Edgar Moyo made these changes after consulting with the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority.
“Section 3 of the Petroleum (Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous Ethanol with Unleaded Petrol) Regulations, 2013, published in Statutory Instrument 17 of 2013, is repealed and substituted by the following. These regulations shall apply to all unleaded petrol imported into Zimbabwe,” the statutory instrument read.
According to the SI, all unleaded petrol imported into Zimbabwe should be blended with anhydrous ethanol.
This means that fuel importers will have to mix a certain percentage of ethanol with petrol before selling it to motorists.
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“Subsection (1) shall come into operation seven days from the date of publication of these regulations,” the SI read.
SI 17 of 2013 stated that no procurement licensee or wholesale licensee shall sell unleaded petrol, unless the unleaded petrol has been blended with a minimum of five per centum (5%) locally produced anhydrous ethanol, being ethanol blend grade E5, which is produced by a licensed ethanol blender”.
It added that no person other than licensed ethanol blenders could blend anhydrous ethanol with unleaded petrol; that no licensed ethanol blender could purchase anhydrous ethanol for blending purposes except from a licensed ethanol producer; no licensed ethanol blender could blend anhydrous ethanol with unleaded petrol except at a facility specified in the blender’s licence; as well as that every licensed ethanol producer would, for every batch of anhydrous ethanol supplied to a licensed ethanol blender, furnish to the blender, a quality assurance certificate certifying that the anhydrous ethanol complies with the parameters that are specified in Part 1 of the Schedule.