The State Council, China's cabinet, on Wednesday issued a timetable for its program to upgrade fuel quality, with strict standards to be promoted nationwide before 2017.

The country will issue the "5th-phase" standard for automobile petrol, with sulphur content within 10 parts per million, before the end of the year, with a grace period until the end of 2017, according to an executive meeting of the State Council chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao.

Beijing is the only city in China to have adopted such a standard, equal to Europe's Euro V vehicle emissions cap of sulphur content below 10 ppm.

When the grace period comes to an end, the standard will be in practice nationwide.

The "4th-phase" standard for automobile petrol, namely no more than 50 ppm of sulphur content, has already been issued.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration will soon issue the "4th-phase" standard for automobile diesel with sulphur content within 50 ppm. This standard must be implemented before the end of 2014, according to the statement.

Domestic oil refiners should upgrade their equipment to ensure they can provide products that meet the new standards in line with the timetables, it said, adding that more efforts should be made to step up research on automobile engines.

Gas prices should be fixed properly and subsidies should be given to disadvantaged people and nonprofit organizations, according to the statement.

Sinopec Corp said last week it is upgrading desulphurization facilities and will supply cleaner oil products that meet national standards for pollutant emissions in 2014.

China's developed regions, including Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, use the national "4th-phase" standard of 50 ppm or below, while the remaining regions have adopted the national "3rd-phase" standard, which allows the sulphur content of fuel to be as high as 150 ppm.

Cleaner fuel may also mean higher prices. When Beijing and Shanghai switched from the national "3rd-phase" standard to the stricter national "4th-phase" standard five years ago, petrol prices rose by 0.2 to 0.3 yuan (3 to 5 US cents) per liter.

The possibility of price hikes has stirred much discussion about who will bear a rise in petrol prices, which are already considered by many to be too high.

(China Daily 02/07/2013 page3)