Petroleum marketers are preparing for the Jan. 1 implementation of the final EPA Fuels Streamlining Rule that simplifies the agency's regulations for gasoline and diesel without changing the stringency of existing fuel specifications. But unlike last year's implementation of IMO sulfur standards, there is little fanfare about upcoming changes. Petroleum analysts and consultants do not expect wild price swings or major changes in the relationships between various hydrocarbons as the regs take effect next month and phase into the tougher summer standards from April into June. Still, there is one clear conclusion in the hundreds of pages of streamlining regulations: RBOB should be easier to manufacture, whether at the refinery, import terminal, or in various blending hubs throughout the U.S. Blending might be easier, but lower refinery runs throughout the Atlantic Basin currently make for fewer components to mix up batches of finished fuel. Traders, refiners and blenders say that the biggest change by far comes in test methods for reformulated gasoline or RBOB. Gone will be the daunting tests that came with the "complex model," where fuel had to conform to very rigid parameters, demonstrating that gasoline would not violate thresholds for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and violate the Clean Air Act. Effective Jan. 1, RBOB will be judged on three primary standards: benzene, sulfur, and Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP).
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