In the coming days, a new law on the standardization of liquefied gas on the territory of Ukraine will come into force. Quality control will be carried out by the State Environmental Inspection, see the details and nuances of the new law.
From the moment of the appearance of liquefied gas to the present day, the quality was regulated in accordance with the USSR GOST, as for gas for domestic and municipal needs. As for the new law, in addition to the previous rules, there will be four more new criteria for evaluating liquefied gas. The main two are responsible for controlling the octane number, as well as for the presence of free water, which is not allowed in liquefied gas. The other two will be responsible for controlling the vapor pressure and sulfur content of the LPG.
According to statistics, about 75% of the liquefied gas sold on the territory of Ukraine is imported. Most of it falls on Russia, then Belarus and less Kazakhstan. As for the remaining 25%, this share falls on the Ukrainian manufacturer. The requirements for the new standard are met only in the Belarusian liquefied gas, since these rules have been in effect on their territory for several years.
Liquefied gas from Kazakhstan occupies something in between in the standard, it does not meet the standards for saturated gas pressure and octane number. The parameters of the standard with gas from Rosneft are worse. It does not completely meet the new standard, and also violates some standards of the previously established GOST USSR. Experts note the increased level of free water and sulfur in such liquefied gas. According to an expert on the oil market, Alexander Kirimov, all liquefied gas imported into Ukraine must be mixed in order to achieve the required quality standard parameters. A similar situation has developed with Ukrainian producers of liquefied gas. But as the owners of these factories say, they are in full swing modernizing their factories in order to withstand all the parameters according to the new standard. At the same time, on the other hand, most Ukrainian producers are in favor of the temporary postponement of the introduction of the standard for liquefied gas.
Consumers on the market will not feel the decline in supplies, and similarly they promise not to raise the price of liquefied gas in Ukraine. Although the latter, as always, will be questioned to the last. Some suppliers have already switched to the new EN 589 standard and supply liquefied gas with all the met parameters. Among the huge network, the WOG and KLO network managed to switch to the new EN 589 standard. According to representatives of the State Environmental Inspection, no one will be able to close gas stations that do not adhere to the standard, since there is no regulatory framework, and the law does not provide for it either.
Many traders of liquefied gas knew about the transition to a new standard, but at the same time no one was in a hurry to invest money to modernize production and create special laboratories. The reason for this is the high cost of modernization, it is cheaper and easier for a manufacturer to pay a fine for low-quality liquefied gas than to buy new equipment, reconfigure production and comply with the standard.
