The Illinois Department of Agriculture decided Friday (4/16) afternoon to delay the enforcement of national fuel quality specifications in the state of Illinois for a year past the previous deadline of May 1, according to Jeff Squibb, department spokesman.

The postponed regulation will make ethanol-blended gasoline subject to the same quality specifications as non-ethanol gasoline blends. Previously, there were exceptions in place for ethanol blends.

Originally, the regulation was set to be enforced on Jan. 1, but refiners expressed concern that they would not be able to turnover current product, and said it would take several months to change the refining process in order to comply with the regulation. The department delayed implementation of the rule until May 1 in order to coincide with the changeover from winter to summer gasoline.

Over the past two weeks, industry marketers and jobbers contacted the department to argue for another delay in the regulation’s enforcement, as some pipeline operators would not be able to deliver compliant gasoline at this point, states a letter from the department to petroleum industry members.

“We were told that the industry would be ready to comply by this May but found out in recent weeks that is not the case,” Squibb said. “The issue with product already in the pipelines was unanticipated.”

Some refiners in Ill., will also be breathing a sigh of relief that the regulation has been delayed, said Dave Sykuta, executive director for the Illinois Petroleum Council, a sub-group of the American Petroleum Institute.

“We have a neutral position on the regulation; we have guys on both sides,” Sykuta said. “Some of my members are confident that they can meet the standards but others weren’t so sure.”

The regulations will ultimately hold refiners responsible if their product isn’t up to specifications, which creates a challenge for refiners because they have no control over the quality of the ethanol that is blended with their gasoline. Ethanol’s highly-evaporative properties give it a high Reid Vapor Pressure, or RVP, rating, which refiners have to counterbalance. The ethane in ethanol can also cause issues at the fuel’s boiling point.

Sykuta said marketers were more united in their efforts to delay the regulation because of their reliance on non-contracted fuel, which refiners are less likely to adjust in order to meet specifications.

“Every time we roll out new regulations if you ask a refiner if they can meet specifications and they say ‘yes,’ they might be referring to just the contracted percentage of their fuel,” Sykuta said. “They’re not worried about non-contracted part, and I think it’s fair to say that a lot of Illinois marketers are not contracted.”