Mobil Oil Corp. will join California's alternative motor fuels demonstration program by installing methanol dispensers at some retail outlets.
With help from the California Energy Commission (CEC), Mobil will place dispensers at as many as 10 stations in southern California by 1992. Mobil will sell M85, which is 85% methanol and 15% unleaded gasoline.
The company and state will share costs of offering M85 in a program designed to reduce emission of pollutants. Mobil will pay to install, operate, and maintain the equipment, while the state will pay for all storage and dispensing equipment at station sites.
Mobil is the fifth major motor fuel retailer to enlist in the demonstration program.
The two largest fuel retailers in California, ARCO Petroleum Products Co. and Chevron USA, are selling methanol at 18 outlets throughout the state. Exxon Corp. and Shell Oil Co. plan to begin dispensing it by yearend.
Mobil and the commission will select sites based on location and demand from methanol fueled vehicles.
WHAT'S BEING DONE
CEC's goal, said Chairman Charles R. Imbrecht, is to help bring oil companies, auto makers, and methanol suppliers together to test and demonstrate methanol in motor vehicles.
"Public/private partnerships are the most effective way to obtain the data we need" on methanol's benefits, Imbrecht said.
More than two thirds of California's 750 methanol fueled vehicles are in the southern part of the state. CEC expects to have 5,000 fuel flexible vehicles operating in California by yearend 1992.
General Motors has agreed to supply the state's public and private fleets with 2,220 flexible fuel vehicles by 1992, Imbrecht said.
CEC is seeking a similar agreement from Ford Motor Co., which has already supplied more than 200 such vehicles to the demonstration program.
Four firms have agreed to each supply 2 million gal of fuel grade methanol to California's 8 million gal fuel methanol reserve. CEC administers the reserve, which provide's methanol for demonstration programs. Terminals are in northern and southern California.
Imbrecht said a recent 10% cut in the wholesale price of methanol for the reserve trimmed retail costs to the level of premium gasoline.
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