By Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACAPMA).
The members of the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) – Ampol Limited, BP Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, and Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd – supply around 90% of transport fuel to the Australian local market via refinery production, imported supply and trading operations. These members recently agreed to amend the colour range specification of all unleaded petrol grades (excluding low aromatic fuel used in regulated communities) through the removal of dye.
This colour change will harmonise petrol manufactured in Australia with current international practices (eg, Europe, USA, Asia) and trading markets – where petrol grades are not dyed. The change will remove the need to dye premium unleaded petrol grades, which will assist AIP member companies – and other suppliers who import fuels – with the purchase of petrol cargoes from international refineries.
Removal of the dye will see a new colour range specification for all petrol grades – changing from the current specification of ‘pale yellow to yellow’ to ‘colourless through to yellow’ – depending on the petrol grade.
Importantly, the change will not have any impact on the fuel’s quality and performance. Nor will it have any impact on compliance with Federal and State government fuel quality standards or other legislation.
The changes will commence on 1 August 2021 and will likely take about 12 months to transition the entire supply chain to the new industry colour specification. During this transition period, it is likely that retailers may receive both dyed and non-dyed petrol grades
It is expected that the slight colour change will go largely unnoticed by forecourt customers. Customers sourcing fuel for the refuelling of smaller equipment (eg, lawnmowers and trimmers) may notice the change in colour, giving rise to questions about the fuel they are using.
To address any potential issues, AIP and its member companies have developed a media statement for communicating the change – including a Questions and Answers summary. This statement can be downloaded via the following link: https://www.aip.com.au/colour-australian-unleaded-petrol-grades-evolving-aip-technical-market-update.
In addition, AIP member companies have advised that their customer inquiry teams have been briefed on the changes to deal with any customer inquiries.
Published with permission from ACAPMA.
Source: acapmag.com.au/2021/07/petrol-colour-change
