The norm, in detail

The mandatory biofuel blend goes up, and the market stops being closed

Bill · Senate committee report, Sep 3, 2026

pendingNATIONAL Energy and natural resources

The Senate committee report of Sep 3, 2026 takes biodiesel to 10% and bioethanol to 15%, with 6% reserved for sugarcane and auctions instead of quotas. What is in force today and what it takes to become law.

What changed and who it applies to

What changed

Nothing has changed yet: this is a committee report, not a law. What is in force today are articles 8 and 9 of Law 27,640: diesel must carry a statutory floor of 5% biodiesel —which the Energy Secretariat raised to 7.5% through Resolution 612/2025, in force since January 2, 2026— and gasoline, 12% bioethanol. What the report proposes, signed on September 3, 2026 by the Mining, Energy and Fuels Committee and the Budget and Finance Committee: take biodiesel to 10% one year after the law is enacted, hold bioethanol at 12% for a year and then raise it to 15%, split that 15% into 6% from sugarcane, 6% from corn and 3% open to competition, cap any single company at 20% of the annual volume, allocate the mandatory blend through an electronic auction, and give the regime fifteen years of validity instead of the current one, which expires on December 31, 2030. The mandatory blend stays reserved for plants installed in the country using domestic feedstock; imports are free only for voluntary blends above the minimum. prob · Sep 3, 2026 ↗

In force

Not in force. It has had a Senate committee report since September 3, 2026 and has not yet reached the floor. If the Senate passes it, it moves to the Chamber of Deputies; there is only a law once both chambers pass it, and the new blends are counted from that point (biodiesel, one year later). prob · Sep 3, 2026 ↗

Are you in or out?

Sugar mills in the north and corn-based bioethanol plants, which would move from quota allocation to a floor by feedstock plus a competitive tranche; soybean-oil biodiesel producers, today concentrated in Santa Fe; refiners, who are required to buy and blend; and any company that today cannot enter the biodiesel market because article 11 of Law 27,640 bars it until the installed capacity of the incumbents is used up. prob · Jul 15, 2021 ↗

Our reading

There are two different things inside the same bill, and it pays not to confuse them. One is more mandate: the State forces higher biofuel blending, and that is demand created by law, not by the market. The other is less of a lock, and it is the one that matters to anyone who wants in: today the law bars a new company from joining the biodiesel market until the incumbents' capacity is full, and the bill replaces that ban with an electronic auction capped at 20% per company. For a northern producer, on top of that, the 6% reserved for sugarcane bioethanol turns a slice of the blend into demand with a written floor. thesis

Where it lands, province by province1

Salta Salta produces sugarcane bioethanol: the San Martín del Tabacal mill and refinery, in Orán, owned by Seaboard Corporation, is one of the country's largest producers and runs two distilleries. The 6% of the gasoline blend reserved for sugarcane is mandatory demand with a written floor for that product, and the jump from 12% to 15% enlarges the pie being shared. ⚠️ What cannot be claimed yet: how much of that quota Salta would capture against Tucumán and Jujuy, which produce the same thing and more. And Senator Flavia Royón, from Salta, authored one of the six bills folded into the report — which says the province is inside the negotiation, not that the outcome suits it. favorable opening and deregulation thesis

The mandatory biofuel blend goes up, and the market stops being closed

What changed and who it applies to

Our reading

Where it lands, province by province1

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