Summary of questions
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Petrol
Reducing the maximum aromatics limit to 35%
1. Should New Zealand reduce the allowable aromatic content of both regular 91, premium 95 and premium 98 petrol to 35%? If not, why not? What level do you consider it should be set at?
2. Should proposed changes come into effect from 1 December 2025? If not, why not?
3. If these proposed changes were implemented from 1 December 2025, would this delay the supply of Euro 6d petrol vehicles to New Zealand? Why?
4. Do you have any information on the likely cost impact of changing the maximum aromatic level for 95 and 98 RON petrol?
5. Besides ethanol, do you consider that there are any other octane enhancers that could be used to produce premium petrol with a low aromatic level, which should be allowed by the Regulations? If not, why not?
Adding a silver strip corrosion test to detect active sulphur
6. Do you agree that we should add a silver strip corrosion test to the Regulations, Schedule 1, using either ASTM D7667 or ASTM D7671?
7. Do you have a preference on whether to use ASTM D7667 or ASTM D7671, or both?
Relaxing the specification to allow petrol with the 10ppm sulphur requirement to be used as a denaturant
8. Do you agree that the maximum allowable sulphur requirement for ethanol denaturants should be relaxed, so long as the final denatured ethanol is less than 10ppm sulphur? If not, why not?
9. If the requirement is relaxed, should there still be a maximum allowable level of sulphur for denaturants? If so, what should that level be? If not, why not?
Introducing a density specification
10. Should we introduce a petrol density range to the specifications? If not, why not?
11. If a range is introduced, should the density range be 720-775 kg/m³. If not, why not?
Miscellaneous technical amendments for petrol and ethanol specifications
12. Do you support these technical amendments for petrol and ethanol specifications? Are there any that you disagree with? Why?
Diesel
Maximum density
13. Should the maximum allowable diesel density be reduced to 845 kg/m³? If not, why not?
14. For FAME blends, should the density relaxation be removed (845kg/m³) or reduced in line with the proposed maximum density change for diesel (849kg/m³)? If not, why not?
Limiting Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
15. Do you agree with lowering the maximum PAH percentage from 11% to 8%? If not, why not?
Filter blocking tendency
16. Do you agree with reducing the filter blocking tendency limit from 2.5 to 2.0? If not, why not?
Renewable diesel (HVO) specification
17. Do you agree that EN15940 should be used as the basis for a New Zealand specification covering renewable diesel (HVO) and other paraffinic diesels? If not, why not?
18. Do you agree that the Regulations do not need to prescribe the blending limit on diesel / renewable diesel blends? If not, why not?
19. Do you agree that the Regulations do not need to prescribe labelling requirements for diesel / renewable diesel blends? If not, why not?
20. Do you agree that, for retail sale of HVO, the diesel/HVO blends should be required to meet the proposed density specification for diesel (820-845 kg/m³)? If not, why not?
21. Do you agree that, for non-retail sale, renewable diesel should be able to be sold in neat form?
22. Do you agree that, for non-retail sale, any diesel / renewable diesel blends would be exempt from the diesel density specification that would otherwise apply to the retail sale of renewable diesel? If not, why not?
23. If we clarify the regulations for renewable diesel, would you expect to see more renewable diesel on the market?
Miscellaneous technical amendments for diesel specifications
24. Do you support the miscellaneous technical amendments for diesel specifications? If not, why not?
Implementing the Fuel Quality Monitoring Programme
25. Do you support the proposed changes to the implementation of MBIE’s Fuel Quality Monitoring Programme? If not, why not?
Have your say
Details on how to submit and a PDF version of the discussion document are available on the following page:
Have your say: Updating New Zealand’s engine fuel specifications to ensure they are fit-for-purpose