Q COSTARICA — The Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía (Minae)—Ministry of Environment and Energy- is maintaining its plan to sell premium gasoline blended with 10% ethanol, but the launch will be delayed and is no longer guaranteed to begin in 2027.
This is because the RECOPE, the Costa Rican refinery that refines nothing, must make prior purchases to produce the blend, and these steps do not yet have a definitive timeline.
The process of supplying the plant-based component adds another delay: the ethanol will be obtained through an international tender open to national and foreign producers, a process that the Ministry estimates will take about a year. Once the project decrees are published, the refinery will develop a roadmap to specify the deadlines.
The Deputy Energy Minister Ronny Rodríguez said in April that the official intention remains to blend premium gasoline with 10% ethanol. The Ministry is also reviewing regulations inherited from the previous administration to determine if adjustments are needed before launching the program.
The MINAE plans to publish the first two decrees in the second half of this year. One will define the institutional governance of the project, including participating entities and their respective responsibilities; the other will establish the physical and chemical characteristics of the blends.
So far, the MINAE has determined that the RECOPE will be the entity responsible for producing the blends.
The fuel will first be incorporated into premium gasoline because, according to Rodríguez, the vehicles that use it are more modern and designed to receive the blend.