IPART’s role in fuel ethanol
Under the NSW Biofuels Act 2007 (Biofuels Act), fuel sellers must ensure that ethanol accounts for at least 6% of the total volume of petrol sold in a quarter (ethanol mandate). This means that 60% of fuel sales are required to be E10 (which is made up of 10% ethanol, and 90% unleaded fuel).
IPART has two ongoing roles under the Biofuels Act, which are:
- to determine, and periodically review, a ‘reasonable wholesale price’ for ethanol for use in the production of petrol-ethanol blends such as E10
- to monitor the retail market (including prices) for petrol-ethanol blend and make reports to the Minister for Fair Trading (the Minister) on the effect of a determination of the reasonable price for wholesale ethanol.
Why we set the wholesale price for ethanol
Fuel sellers can be exempt from meeting the ethanol mandate on various grounds. Since 2017, one of the grounds of exemption is that the wholesale price of fuel ethanol paid by retailers exceeds the reasonable wholesale price determined by IPART.
We set wholesale prices based on an estimate of the market price of importing ethanol.
IPART’s determined price