THE CRUDE oil refinery group Slovnaft has started selling 95-octane gasoline with ETBE (bio-ethyl tertiary butyl ether) in Slovakia. Petrol with the bio-additive is available at all terminals, as well as all Slovnaft petrol stations.
Slovnaft spokesperson Hana Šimková said that the company should soon start adding ETBE to other types of petrol as well.
In September 2006, Slovnaft started selling bio-diesel on the Slovak market.
"By launching bio-diesel and bio-petrol on the Slovak market, the refinery is helping Slovakia fulfill the EU program for the implementation of bio-fuels, according to which the share of bio-additives in fuels used for transport should be two percent of the energy content in 2006," Šimková said.
Slovakia is the first country from the Visegrad group (Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland) to produce and sell diesel and petrol with bio-additives on the domestic market.
Šimková said that ETBE receives a tax break, as does methyl-ester made from rapeseed oil (MERO), another petrol additive.
The Hungarian crude oil and gas giant MOL is the majority shareholder of Slovnaft, controlling 98.4 percent.
