INDUSTRY INFORMATION Industry Information
 

Regulation of Fuel Quality in Australia
- Low Sulfur Diesel
- Fuel Specifications Table

Industry Facts
- Benchmark pricing
- Supply and Demand

Service Stations
- Australian Service Station Statistics
- Safety at the Pump
- Service Station Security

Petroleum Topics
- Australian Petroleum Facilities
- Benzene in Petrol
- Liquified Petroleum Gas
- Oceans and Oil Spills
- Offshore Drilling
- Alternative Transport Fuels
- Refining of Petroleum
- Exploration and Production in the Marine Environment

< HOME

 

MOPS 95 - THE BENCHMARK FOR AUSTRALIAN GRADE UNLEADED MOTOR SPIRIT
(Source: Krysta Fox - BP Australia)

Benchmark pricing

The oil industry generally uses benchmark pricing to escalate/de-escalate prices in the market place. This enables companies to manage the margin between the sell price and fluctuating cost of product. International benchmark pricing is used because oil is truly an international commodity and the benchmark represents the alternative (importing) price to obtaining product from the local refinery. Naturally the refinery expects to sell for the going international price or it woudl simply export all of its' refined product, rather than sell in the local market.

Why does it matter if it is MOPS 92 or 95?

The MOPS 95 quote is higher than MOPS 92. On average from January 2001 to September 2002 the difference was 1.6USD/barrel and 1.9Acpl. Therefore it matters to the oil company that the right benchmark is being used.

Why MOPS 95 is the correct benchmark in Australia

Simply, it would not be possible to import a straight MOPS 92 quote product and meet Australian specifications. However, there are a number of reasons, as listed below:

• MOPS 95 is the benchmark quote for all commercially traded Australian grade unleaded product. This is the result of rigorous commercial negotiations, and is market determined.
• BP imports Australian grade product at MOPS 95, not MOPS 92.
• In order to achieve a MON of 81 (Australian regulations from 1/7/02) Singapore refineries blend higher levels of reformate, which is an expensive component relative to Catalytic Cracked spirit 1. In doing so, they achieve a RON of around 94-94.5, which is higher than the RON legislated in Australia of minimum 91. Those suppliers expect to be remunerated for the octane level, and hence demand a MOPS 95 based price.
• There is flexibility within the MOPS 92 specification to blend low quality components, which still meet the Platts spec, but do not meet Australian specification. This offers an incentive to producers to offload low quality product.
• The Platts service is a mechanism for enabling buyers and sellers to come together, in a liquid market, to determine a price that balances supply and demand. Platts quality is reflective of the common grades traded but not necessarily marketed to end users in the region.

Some more interesting facts:

• The ACCC2 acknowledges in various publications that MOPS 95 is the most appropriate quote for Australian grade unleaded fuel. Regulated prices were based on MOPS 95.
• Woolworths has purchased product from Trafigura based on MOPS 95 quotes not MOPS 92.
• The WA state government (Department of Industry and Technology, Government of Western Australia) 2002 fuel tender calls for offers on the basis of MOPS 95.

MON versus RON

In fact, the Australian specification of 91 RON for unleaded is less than both MOPS 92 and 95. An important difference in Australian specifications is the MON requirement. Far Eastern specifications by and large have no MON requirements.

In order to meet the MON requirements of Australian regular grade gasoline it is necessary to consider much higher RON specified product. In practise, to meet a MON requirement of 81 min MON, a RON level of 94-94.5 would be required. Refiners do not give away RON, and therefore expect to be remunerated for higher RON.

The MON specification relates to the operability of vehicles, and incorrect MON causes poor combustion and increases exhaust emissions. MON indicates anti-knocking performance of fuel under higher engine speed and higher load conditions.

Refined product quality

Singapore quotes are different on a number of critical parameters to the Australian specification. The WA specification currently sets even lower limits than the Australian specification for benzene, sulphur, MTBE, aromatics and olefins. The Australian specification is legislated to achieve the higher specifications by January 2005, in a phased approach.

The Singapore 95 quotes more closely reflect the fundamental MON requirement in Australian regular gasoline specifications than the 92 quotes, due the higher quality components that need to be used to achieve a 95 octane. Also, product sold on a MOPS 92 basis is far less likely to achieve the Australian MON spec than product sold on a MOPS 95 basis.

The Platts specification limits provide generous distillation points and could lead to poor driveability and performance in practice. This once again reinforces the fact that Platts specifications are more reflective of traded product and not an endorsement by anyone that the product is fit for purpose.

Note: A quality premium is used to reflect WA's higher still cleaner fuel specifications, over and above the Australian specifications.

Singapore Platts
MOPS 92
Singapore Platts
MOPS 95
Regulated Australian Fuel Standard
WA Fuel Specification
RON
Min 92
Min 95
Min 91
Min 91
MON
No spec
No spec
Min 81 @ July 2002 (BP spec currently min 82)
Min 81 @ July 2002 (BP spec currently min 82)
Lead content (g/L)?
0.013 max
0.013 max
0.005 max
0.005 max
Reid Vapour Presure (?)
68.9 max
68.9 max
State regulated Lowest other 62kPa
67kPa summer mthly av
Benzene (% vol)
Max 5.0%
Max 5.0%
Nationally 5.0% Lowest other state @ 3.5%
1.0% vol
Sulphur (% wt)
Max 0.10%
Max 0.10%
Max 0.05% (500ppm)
Max 0.015% (150ppm)
MTBE (%vol)
Max 10%
Max 10%
Max 1%
Max 0.10%
Oxygenates (%vol)
No limit
No limit
Max 2.7% (including 1% MTBE)
Max 1% (including 0.1% MTBE)
Aromatics (%vol)
No limit
No limit
45% pool avge Currently no spec, but pooled average max of 18% by 1/1/2004
Max 42%
Olefins
No limit
No limit
18%

Distillation, °C

IBP, 10% evap.
IBP, 50% evap.
IBP, 90% evap.
FBP

 

Max 74
Max 127
Max 190
Max 225

 

Max 74
Max 127
Max 190
Max 225

 

Max 65
Max 115
Max 183
Max 228

 

Max 65
Max 115
Max 183
Max 228
Phosporous
No spec
No spec
.0013
0.0013
Copper corrosion
1
1
1
1
Existent Gum (mg/L)
Max 40
Max 40
Max 40
Max 40

* 1PSI = 6.89kPa

*indicates the stricter specification *indicates those elements which are potential environmental or health hazards

Blend components

The table below shows the components that can be blended to produce unleaded motor spirit.

Indicative Split of Components Blended to Achieve Unleaded Grade

Component Amount Comments

Catalytic cracked spirit

Realtively cheap, but high olefins

 ˜30% • 91 octane
• Low MON
• The level of olefins limit the amount of CCS that can be used
• High sulphur

Reformate

Needed to achieve octane levels, at cost of quality (except at Kwinana)

˜30% • ˜98 octane (boosts octane), MON 88
• This component is low benzene through Kwinana's kit. C5 and C6's are removed, giving lower likelihood of benzene.
• Typically around 5-10% benzene levels in Singapore, because they do not remove benzene precursors.

Isomerate/Light Naptha

Needed to achieve quality spec, at cost of octane.

 30%

• The precursor's to C5 and C6 are run through isomerization3. Would be less costly to leave these in the reformate, but remove benzene for environmental reasons. 0 benzene, 0 sulphur.
• Instead of 98 octane, achieve 80-85 octane. Thereby Kwinana is at an octane disadvantage because of the need to product low benzene product.

Butane & Alkylate

Good for quality spec, at cost of rvp.

 Balance • Butane is ˜105 octane, but high rvp therefore limited in how much can be used.
• Alkylation reduces rvp, gives 94 RON, 91 MON
• 0 benzene, 0 sulphur, 0 olefins

To achieve the Australian MON specification and clean fuels, suppliers have to limit the amount of CCS, and blend more reformate and alkylate. Singapore refiners blend higher levels of reformate until they achieve the MON specification byf which time they have overachieved on RON. However, they expect to achieve the RON value. Although alkylate also helps to achieve MON specifications, it is not used because alkylate is of higher value in other products and markets.

Despite the fact that the Platts specs are the same on certain quality elements, it is difficult for a supplier to achieve an 81 MON/95 RON product without considerably limiting the amount of harmful elements in the refined product. The same case does not apply for a 92 RON product. This is why BP strongly believes that MOPS 95 is the only relevant quote for Australia and more specifically West Australian, unleaded motor spirit.

Suppliers seeking a 95 octane are more likely to avoid:

  • Large amounts of Catalytic Cracked Spirit because of its lower octane thereby avoiding harmful olefins. Whereas to meet a 92 specification much larger amounts can be used increasing the olefin and sulphur content.
  • Isomerate, which is not widely available in Asia.

Glossary of terms

Platts
Platts is a publishing/trading house, which publishes daily information on oil price and shipping rates

Mean of Platts
Daily average quote for a particular specification product. MOPs numbers are used by the oil industry in AsiaPacific as benchmark prices.

RON - Research Octane Number
Indicates petrol's anti-knock performance at lower engine speed and typical accelerations conditions.

MON - Motor Octane Number
Indicates anit-knock performance of fuel under higher engine speed and higher load conditions.

1CSS is generally found in higher quantities in low quality MOPS 92 based product
2ACCC, Inquiry into the Petroleum Products Declaration, Vol 2, August 1996 & ACCC, Reducing fuel price volatility, December 2001
3Isomerisation is run at the cost of destroying high octane reformate

  
 

Contacts | Copyright | Privacy Policy
Australian Institute of Petroleum | GPO Box 279, Canberra ACT 2600
Level 2, 24 Marcus Clarke Street Canberra City ACT 2601