From today onwards, diesel fuel sold in Malaysia will strictly be Euro 5 grade and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
the government has started implementing the Euro 5 fuel specification to replace the Euro 2M diesel starting today, said Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
He said all manufacturers, suppliers and petrol stations are required to comply with the implementation in line with the Environmental Quality (Control of Petrol and Diesel Properties) Regulations 2007 and the Environmental Quality (Control of Petrol and Diesel Properties) (Amendment) Regulations 2021.
Petrol to follow soon
According to the updates to the Environmental Quality (Control of Petrol and Diesel Properties) Regulation 2021 which was gazetted on the 26 of March 2021, Malaysian Diesel Standards will only allow for Euro 5 grade fuel to be sold with Petrol to follow next.
In case you’re wondering what the big deal is with Euro 5 grade diesel, it has a maximum sulphur content of 10mg/kg which is lower than the Euro 2M diesel fuel we have now. Lower sulphur content simply makes for lower chances of acid rain being formed.
For now, the lower sulphur content and specific cetane number/cetane index are the two measurable qualities that the government will be enforcing for diesel fuel. What this effectively means is that the cheaper Euro 2M diesel fuel may be taken off the market completely! Don’t quote us on that until an official statement is made by the government, but that’s what legislation seems to suggest.
“The implementation of the Euro 5 diesel specification is part of the Government’s efforts to improve the status of air quality as outlined in the Clean Air Action Plan 2010,” he said in a statement today.
Some of you may remember that the original date for the implementation of Euro 5 diesel was actually Sept 1, 2020 but on June 10th, 2020, the Cabinet decided to postpone the enforcement to April 1 this year due to constraints faced by the industries as well as the outbreak of Covid-19.
Cleaner air quality
Tuan Ibrahim said this nationwide implementation would be able to improve the air quality status as Euro 5 is cleaner and has a lower sulphur content of 10 parts per million (ppm) compared with Euro 2M’s sulphur content of 500 ppm.
“The implementation of the Euro 5 diesel specification is part of the Government’s efforts to improve the status of air quality as outlined in the Clean Air Action Plan 2010,” he said in a statement yesterday.
