Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. informed the Department of Finance that it is ready to start automated fuel marking this month at its 90-million-liter capacity North Mindanao Import Facility in Cagayan de Oro City that serves the requirements of Visayas and Mindanao.
Under the fuel marking program, a unique chemical marker will be introduced to all petroleum products—gasoline, diesel and kerosene—to make it traceable and difficult to dilute fuel, deliver it to a different destination or substitute it with a substandard grade.
The marking will serve as a deterrent to fuels smuggling, therefore enhancing government revenues, because it enables quicker detection of illicit fuels once the local market is fully saturated with marked petroleum products.
Pilipinas Shell said along with the SICPA-SGS consortium, it would install and commission an automated fuel marking injection system at its 110,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Tabangao, Batangas City.