Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade signed a decree on the country's transition to the Euro-4 ecological standard from April 1, 2014.

The decision was published in an official press on January 15.

The Euro-4 ecological standard will be applied to the vehicles imported and manufactured in Azerbaijan to reduce the emission of vehicle pollutants into the atmosphere and improve the environmental situation in the country.

The quality of fuel produced in Azerbaijan is expected to be brought up to Euro-3 standards by late 2014.

Euro-3 standards are currently applied to vehicles and related spare parts in Azerbaijan and the fuel produced in the country.

Azerbaijani State Oil Company SOCAR has been taking steps to improve the quality of its fuel since 2004 under this program which consists of several stages.

SOCAR's vice-president for refining David Mammadov believes that the production of gasoline according to the Euro-3 standard is planned to start in 2015, in line with the SOCAR program.

The diesel fuel produced by SOCAR already meets the Euro-3 standard. Further improvement of the quality to Euro-4 and Euro-5 gasoline standards will become possible after the commissioning of a new oil and gas processing petrochemical complex by SOCAR, which is planned to be constructed in the Garadagh district of Baku, and commissioned in late 2020.

Cars imported to Azerbaijan will also be checked for engines matching Euro-3 standards. Only cars whose engines follow the standards will be imported into the country.

Earlier, the State Committee for Standardization and State Customs Committee jointly worked out the list of cars complying with Euro-3 standards.

The list includes the following cars: