Thailand said on Wednesday it expects to become a bigger exporter of gasoline and diesel as its aggressive push for biofuels and natural gas will wipe out demand growth for the conventional transportation fuels.
Biofuels and natural gas will together replace 21 percent of Thailand's gasoline and diesel use within four years, Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand told Reuters in an interview. Gasohol, traditional gasoline blended with 10 percent corn-based ethanol, would be the only gasoline on the market in a few years time, up from the current 20 percent of Thailand's total consumption of 20 million litres a day.
"That would mean demand growth for traditional gasoline will completely disappear," said Piyasvasti, who was in Riyadh for a meeting between Middle East and Asian energy ministers.
Biodiesel and natural gas would replace some 3 million litres per day of conventional diesel during a similar timeframe. Bangkok is pushing for mandatory 2 percent blending of biodiesel in diesel from April 2008 and 5 percent after. More of Thailand's vehicle fleet will use compressed natural gas (CNG) instead of diesel as the country aims to nearly double the number of CNG service stations to 500 within the next four to five years, he said.
Thailand now consumes about 50 million litres of diesel each day. The changes would help Thailand increase exports, although he could not give details on potential gasoline and diesel shipments.
Thailand already exports fuels, averaging 33,000 barrels per day of gasoline and 50,000 bpd of diesel, he said. He said biofuels were profitable when crude oil prices are at $50 or above. US crude was trading at over $63 a barrel on Wednesday.