The State Council, China's cabinet, on February 7 issued a timetable for its program to upgrade fuel quality, with a strict standard to be promoted nationwide before 2017.

The country will issue the "fifth-phase" standard for automobile petrol, with sulphur content within 10 ppm (parts per million), before the end of the year with a grace period before the end of 2017, said a State Council statement.

Beijing is the only city in China to have adopted such a standard, equal to Europe's Euro V vehicle emissions cap of sulphur content below 10 ppm.

But the "fifth-phase" standard for automobile diesel, with sulphur content within 10 ppm, will come earlier—before June this year—with a grace period before the end of 2017, the statement said.

The "fourth-phase" standard for automobile petrol, namely stating no more than 50 ppm of sulphur content, has already been issued.

Based on this, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration will soon issue the "4th-phase" standard for automobile diesel with sulphur content within 50 ppm and the transitional time will expire at the end of 2014, according to the statement.