Petroleum product importers will be asked to add ethanol (ethyl alcohol) into their fuel, starting next year, according to a project to make bio-fuel use compulsory in Vietnam.

 

The measure is currently being drafted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

 

Importers will have to ensure that their fuel is five percent ethanol, according to Nguyen Phu Cuong, deputy chief of the ministry’s Department of Science and Technology.

 

That ratio is expected to rise to 10 percent in the second half of 2012, according to the author of the proposal Phan Dang Tuat, chief of the Institute of Industrial Strategies and Policies.

 

Tuat said bio-fuel is popular in the world because it helps decrease pollution and is probably cheaper.

 

Ethanol functions in the same way as normal fuel, he added.

 

Vietnam’s Prime Minister approved a project to develop bio-fuel here in 2007.

 

PV Oil and Petec, both subsidiaries of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), currently sell gasohol E5 (five percent ethanol and 95 percent of A92 fuel) at 38 stations across the country.