Starting April 1, cleaner automobile fuels meeting the China III standard will be available at Shenzhen's gas stations, but these will be priced higher than those currently on offer, Thursday's Daily Sunshine reported.

All vehicles in the city will be required to use the China III fuels by June 1, making the city the fourth one in China to adopt the new standard, following Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the report said.

The amount of sulphur content in car emissions will drop from the current 0.05 percent to 0.015 percent if the greener fuels are used.

Retail prices of the cleaner petrol and diesel, approved by the Guangdong Provincial Pricing Bureau and expected to take effect April 1, will be respectively 210 yuan and 190 yuan higher per ton than the current prices, the Daily Sunshine report said.

For the No. 90 unleaded gasoline meeting the China III standard, the retail price has been set at 4.58 yuan per liter, 0.13 yuan higher. For the cleaner No. 93 and No. 97 unleaded gasoline, the retail price will be 4.93 yuan and 5.34 yuan per liter respectively, up 0.14 yuan and 0.15 yuan. The diesel No. 0 will be sold at 4.82 yuan per liter, 0.14 yuan higher.

Officials with the Shenzhen Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said the amount of noxious pollutants discharged in the city will drop by around 30 to 50 percent after the greener fuels are used.

Shenzhen will buy 2.4 million tons of China III fuels annually from refineries. So far, about 40,000 tons of the fuels have been transported to the city and the figure is expected to rise to more than 120,000 tons in April.

Statistics show that the city consumed 3.6 to 3.8 million tons of fuel last year, of which 2.6 million tons were supplied by Sinopec.

The number of vehicles regi-stered in Shenzhen reached 1 million March 6.

Editor: Yan