Israel's Dor Chemicals plans to double methanol imports within two years to meet an expected demand surge for blended gasoline, a senior company official said Wednesday.
"Imports will reach 200,000 mt/year with the introduction of a 15% methanol/gasoline blend in the transport sector," company Methanol Development Director Joseph Antverg said in an interview with Platts.
Israel's Energy and Water and Transport ministries are currently studying a plan to use a 15% methanol/gasoline mix, which would be raised gradually to 30% and then to as high as 85%, in the country's transport sector, with first sales at pump stations nationwide targeted for 2015.
Antverg said he expects methanol to account for 10% of fuel demand in the transport sector within two years of the blend's introduction. Israel currently consumes around 2.5 million mt/year of gasoline, all of it produced domestically from imported crude.
Dor currently imports 100,000 mt/year of methanol for its petrochemical production and to meet local demand. It is proposing replacing all methanol exports in the longer term by building a 500,000 mt/year methanol plant in southern Israel utilizing the country's offshore gas resources.
The company is also currently testing several vehicles using a 15% methanol/gasoline blend and will expand the number to several hundred early next year, as well as beginning trials of a 70% methanol/gasoline blend in five vehicles.
The Israeli government is currently drawing up regulations and standards for the use of methanol in the transport sector as part of plans to sharply reduce the country's reliance on oil. It targets reducing oil consumption in the transport sector by 30% in 2020 and by 60% in 2025.
