Inter From January 1, 5% of alcohol will be added to gasoline

Ukrainian gasoline must contain alcohol. These are the requirements of the law that comes into force in the new year. Will fuel become cheaper? Or will it be the other way around? Iryna Smirnova found out.

Irina Smirnova, correspondent:

- This car is 31 years old and was manufactured in 1982. It still runs on old fuel, though. And this is a car made in 2013. Experts say that even it may not like benzoethanol.

Gasoline plus alcohol. Starting January 1, 2014, the law obliges all oil traders to add at least 5% of ethanol to standard fuel. Officials and some analysts claim that, in addition to the environmental benefits, this can reduce the cost of the final product.

Viktor Medvid, head of a consulting company:

- In reality, it is possible to reduce the cost of gasoline by 20-30 percent. That is, 9-8 hryvnias, or even 7.50 if the volume is large.

Fuel market operators say the opposite: gasoline will rise in price. This is because Ukraine has only one third of its own bioethanol, which is planned to be added to fuel. The rest will have to be purchased abroad.

Sergiy Koretsky, CEO of WOG:

- Imports of bioethanol lead to additional excise taxes, additional fees during customs clearance and directly affect the price of finished petroleum products and finished gasoline.

An interesting point: after the new law comes into force, both large fuel market players and underground producers will be in the same position. Both will be breaking the law by adding alcohol to gasoline. There are no state standards yet. And it is not known when they will appear.

But car owners will have problems quickly.

Viktor Ustimenko, specialist at DerzhavtotransNDIproekt:

- Bioethanol is an excellent fuel. Its characteristics are excellent. But the fact is that cars and engines were designed by automobile plants to use gasoline.

And while new cars are more or less adapted for benzoethanol, cars born of the Soviet car industry, and old foreign cars, unfortunately, are not. Cars older than 10 years may not survive the innovations.

Oleksandr Chalenko, Head of Service Development at Ukravto:

- Such cars are not designed to use such fuel in principle.

No one asked the opinion of car owners at all.

Leonid Kosyanchuk, President of the Association of Oil Market Operators:

- The consumer is deprived of the right to choose. If you don't want to fill up, you don't go anywhere.

But those who benefit from the new law on 100% - alcohol producers - are waiting in anticipation: they don't want to scare off their luck. And the people are waiting for the authorities to respond: will they repeal the law, postpone it, or still add alcohol to fuel?