I an effort to reduce contamination produced by hydrocarbons in Gasoline, the Costa Rican National Oil Refinery announced that Petrol here in Costa Rica will contain at least 7% ethanol by the second half of 2008.

The longer term goal is to up the level to between 10% and 15% by 2011 and for diesel customers they plan to develop a fuel containing 2-5% bio diesel obtained from palm oil.

This will not be a cheap process, but will continue the ever increasing efforts of Costa Rica to become the first pollution neutral country in the world. The government are set to promote the cultivation of sugarcane and industrial Cassava in order to produce the necessary ethanol for the project. The introduction of the ethanol will be carried out slowly to enable users to get used to it gradually and to guarantee that there will be enough agricultural product available in order to meet demand.

During the next two weeks, the refinery, which has a monopoly on the refining and distribution of fuels in the country, will be opening bidding on an expansion of its plant to equip it to handle ethanol and bio diesel.