Khan: End to regular gas ‘bitter pill’

ENERGY Minister Franklin Khan says the cessation of the sale of regular gasoline was necessary, as it was not feasible to import the fuel.

He was responding to an urgent question in the Senate yesterday from Independent Senator Paul Richards on why the sale of regular gasoline had been stopped.

Khan said the Petrotrin refinery produced several products, including RON 83, a low-octane fuel called regular. He said the usage of regular was very low, at 8,000-10,000 barrels per month.

"With the cessation of refining operations at Pointe-a-Pierre," he said, "that small volume was extremely difficult to source on the international market. As a matter of fact, no regional refinery around this area, and probably very few in the world, as a matter of course, make RON 83. RON 83 is no longer used anywhere in the world because it is such a low-octane fuel."

He said to access RON 83 it would have to be specially ordered and for an order in the very small volumes used in TT, the unit cost per litre would be higher than premium gas.

"So the Government was left with no other choice but...the cessation of the use of regular gasoline. It is a product that is no longer used anywhere in the world at all."

Khan said fishermen in Trinidad use regular gas because it is heavily subsidised and sells at $2.60 per litre, whereas super gasoline sells at $4.97 per litre. He added fishermen in Tobago have been using super for the last five to six years .

"It's a bitter pill to swallow, but these are some of the realities we have to face in this new dispensation."

Richards asked how many vehicle users used regular gasoline. Khan said no vehicle is supposed to use regular gas, but because it was so much cheaper than super, certain vehicles were taking the chance to use it or mixing it with super to cut costs. He stressed, however, that the usage of regular in vehicles would negatively affect engines eventually.