Belgian government delays export fuel quality legislation
(Reuters) - The Belgian government could pass its proposed legislation to tighten the quality of exported fuels as late as June now, missing its previous target of the second half of this month, a spokesperson told Reuters.
The royal decree aims to tighten the minimum specifications of fuel exports principally to West Africa, mirroring a similar law imposed in the Netherlands last year to bring a halt to the historically lucrative trade of looser-specificaiton gasoline and diesel out of Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA).
The loss of Northwest Europe's major blending and storage hub for refined fuels exports to West Africa will leave the region's refiners and traders with a logistical headache over what to do with its structural oversupply of low-quality, cheaper fuel that would not be permitted in local markets.
The legislation is now with the Council of State for an advisory period that can take up to three months, said Mathias Bienstman, spokesperson for the Belgium's environment minister Zakia Khattabi.
That is currently the final step before the legislation can be passed.
The ministries involved in preparing the legislation opted only to submit the decree to the Council of State once all other stages had been passed to incorporate all possible elements for the advisory period, Bienstman said regarding the cause of the delay.
The legislation passed the European Union's Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) - which allows the Commission and other member states to examine potential internal trade barriers on new legislation - on March 11, he added.
If the legislation is passed, there would be an implementation period to give the industry time to adjust.
The length of such a period has not been confirmed, but was six months for similar regulation changes, Bienstman said.
That means according to the current timeline the quality of fuel exports may have to be lowered from Belgian ports from 2025, if not slightly sooner.
Comments