Phillips Offers MTBE-Free Gasoline

July 24, 2002

Phillips Petroleum Company lays claim to being the first gasoline retailer in California to offer MTBE-free gasoline year-round at all of its retail outlets. Phillips owns 1,500 '76' gasoline stations throughout California. Phillips, which uses ethanol to replace MTBE, will also make the MTBE-free fuel available to its unbranded independent marketers in the state. The announcement comes a year-and-a-half before the official state deadline to remove MTBE from California gasoline.

"Phillips has been a leader in proving the naysayers wrong about ethanol in California," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. "They were the first refiner to start blending ethanol and now they are the first to be completely MTBE-free in their gasoline stations. I feel strongly that consumers will reward Phillips for their aggressive approach to ending the MTBE contamination of California's precious drinking water supplies."

BP, Shell Oil Products US, and ExxonMobil have announced they will join Phillips and provide MTBE-free gasoline to California in 2003. Together these four marketers account for more than 60 percent of total gasoline sales in California. The only remaining major refiner, ChevronTexaco, hasn't made a definitive public statement regarding their timetable for eliminating the use of MTBE in California gasoline.

"We applaud Phillips for their leadership in replacing MTBE with ethanol in California," said Dinneen. "The ethanol industry is ready, willing, and able to supply any refiner that wishes to stop using MTBE. As ethanol use in California continues to grow, it is good news for existing ethanol producers, but also for the groups planning to produce ethanol in California as well."