25-01-99 BP Amoco will begin offering new cleaner fuels to customers in select cities around the world over the next two years, Sir John Browne, BP Amoco's chief executive, said.

The company will begin offering the fuels with lower sulphur levels in 40 cities, including Detroit, Chicago and London, he said. Cities targeted for the new fuel will be those with the worst pollution problems.
"We can show, year by year, that the products we supply contribute to a progressive improvement in air quality without denying people the fundamental freedom of mobility, Browne said.

The executive director for the non-profit Clean Air Trust, Frank O'Donnell, praised BP Amoco's plan, but said it is "no substitute for national clean gasoline standards."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected soon to introduce a plan for cleaner gasoline in conjunction with a proposal for stricter tailpipe standards that would take effect in the next decade.

Browne also said that its Amoco operations will allow its membership in the Global Climate Coalition, a leading U.S. business lobby for the scientific and policy debate on climate change, to expire at the end of this year. BP had already left the group.
30 % to 40 % of the cities selected for the cleaner-fuel program will be in the United States, with most of the others in western Europe, Browne said.
BP Amoco has not determined whether it will charge a premium for the cleaner fuels. But to convert its U.S. operations to produce them will cost about $ 100 mm over the next 3 to 5 years, he said.

Browne said BP Amoco has fuels like Amoco Ultimate with a sulphur specification of 200 parts per mm. The European Union has declared that level must be reduced to a maximum of 50 parts per mm by 2005, meaning the company must cut its levels even more on average.
Automakers are pushing for a sulphur level of 30 parts per mm or lower. The average U.S. fuel has a sulphur level of 330 parts per mm, Browne said.
BP Amoco's share of the retail gasoline market in the United States is about 14 %, east of the Rocky Mountain range, he said. It has no presence west of the Rockies, which extend from central New Mexico through Colorado and up to north Alaska.

Last year, BP set a target to reduce its emissions from its refineries, oil fields and petrochemical plants at least 10 % by 2010 from 1990 levels. Browne said that target will apply to the Amoco operations.
He said BP Amoco's goals will vary by regions of the world. It wants to create low-sulphur fuels in developed regions while eliminating leaded fuels in less-developed regions. BP Amoco's goal is to be a completely unleaded company world-wide within three years.