There will be no ethanol blended into gasoline Mexico's metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Monterrey or Guadalajara, the Energy Regulatory Commission of Mexico said in fuel specifications announced Monday.
Outside of those regions, a maximum of 5.8% ethanol by volume is allowed to be blended into regular and premium gasoline.
Previous standards allowed up to 2% ethanol blending in Guadalajara, but this is the first real move by Mexico to include ethanol in gasoline.
The fuel standard NOM-016-CRE 2016 will come into effect 60 days after publication and is of particular interest to the US ethanol market, with any shortfall in ethanol supply in Mexico potentially being met by the US.
Ethanol production in Mexico is currently around 66 million gal/year.
"We welcome this positive development related to ethanol use and what it could mean for furthering of the US-Mexican trade partnership," US Grains Council President and CEO Tom Sleight said in a statement.
Mexico currently relies more on MTBE, ETBE and tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME) as oxygenate additives to gasoline rather than ethanol. The inclusion of ethanol in the specification would compete directly with this market.
