MOSCOW, Jul 22 (PRIME) — The Russian government intends to extend the production of Euro-2 emission standard gasoline from September 5 until at least mid-2012, Deputy Director of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Pavel Subbotin said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.
In particular, Subbotin said that an extension is to be given to those oil companies which had earlier signed agreements with the antitrust service, the Federal Ecological, Technological, and Nuclear Oversight, and the Federal Technical Regulation and Metrology Agency on the conditions of upgrading refineries to produce higher quality oil products. The agreements were signed by such Russian oil majors as Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, TNK-BP, Rosneft, Surgutneftegas, and others.
Despite each company having signed different terms for the termination of Euro-2 gasoline production, most are allowed to be prolonged until mid-2012, Subbotin added.
Earlier, the Russian government planned to impose a ban on the production of gasoline under Euro-3 standards from the beginning of 2012. However, oil processing companies claimed that Russia is not ready to end its use of Euro-2 gasoline, as it is used by the bulk of automobiles in the country.
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