diff --git a/etc/RPM/python-owslib.spec b/etc/RPM/python-owslib.spec
index 96f8599de..8dfad75df 100644
--- a/etc/RPM/python-owslib.spec
+++ b/etc/RPM/python-owslib.spec
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ BuildRequires:  python-devel
 BuildRequires:  python-setuptools
 BuildRequires:  fdupes
 Requires:	python
-Requires:       python-dateutil python-pytz
+Requires:       python-dateutil
 
 %description
 OWSLib is a Python package for client programming with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web service (hence OWS) interface standards, and their related content models.
diff --git a/owslib/util.py b/owslib/util.py
index dfc16b32e..779b444cb 100644
--- a/owslib/util.py
+++ b/owslib/util.py
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@
 import sys
 from collections import OrderedDict
 from dateutil import parser
-from datetime import datetime, timedelta
-import pytz
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
 from owslib.etree import etree, ParseError
 from owslib.namespaces import Namespaces
 from urllib.parse import urlsplit, urlencode, urlparse, parse_qs, urlunparse, parse_qsl
@@ -648,8 +647,7 @@ def extract_time(element):
     except Exception:
         att = testXMLValue(element.attrib.get('indeterminatePosition'), True)
         if att and att == 'now':
-            dt = datetime.utcnow()
-            dt.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
+            dt = datetime.utcnow().replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)
         else:
             dt = None
     return dt
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 864dc07c9..f4d789801 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 lxml
 python-dateutil
-pytz
 pyyaml
 requests
diff --git a/tests/doctests/sml_52n_network.txt b/tests/doctests/sml_52n_network.txt
index 010fbb6b5..94add7ddc 100644
--- a/tests/doctests/sml_52n_network.txt
+++ b/tests/doctests/sml_52n_network.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ Imports
     >>> from tests.utils import resource_file
     >>> from owslib.swe.sensor.sml import SensorML
     >>> from dateutil import parser
-    >>> import pytz
 
 Initialize
 
diff --git a/tests/doctests/sml_ndbc_station.txt b/tests/doctests/sml_ndbc_station.txt
index bd2ecf3af..4a25902c7 100644
--- a/tests/doctests/sml_ndbc_station.txt
+++ b/tests/doctests/sml_ndbc_station.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ Imports
     >>> from tests.utils import resource_file
     >>> from owslib.swe.sensor.sml import SensorML
     >>> from dateutil import parser
-    >>> import pytz
+	>>> from datetime import timezone
 
 Initialize
 
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ History
     2
 
     >>> event = his[0]
-    >>> parser.parse(event.date).replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc).isoformat()
+    >>> parser.parse(event.date).replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc).isoformat()
     '2010-01-12T00:00:00+00:00'
     >>> event.description
     'Deployment start event'
diff --git a/tests/test_util.py b/tests/test_util.py
index 70a9148d6..06508699a 100644
--- a/tests/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/test_util.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
 import codecs
-from owslib.util import clean_ows_url, build_get_url, strip_bom
+from owslib.util import clean_ows_url, build_get_url, strip_bom, extract_time
+from owslib.etree import etree
+from datetime import datetime, timezone
 
 
 def test_strip_bom():
@@ -28,7 +30,8 @@ def test_clean_ows_url():
 def test_build_get_url():
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wps", {'service': 'WPS'}) == 'http://example.org/wps?service=WPS'
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wms", {'SERVICE': 'wms'}) == 'http://example.org/wms?SERVICE=wms'
-    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wms?map=/path/to/foo.map&", {'SERVICE': 'wms'}) == 'http://example.org/wms?map=%2Fpath%2Fto%2Ffoo.map&SERVICE=wms'
+    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wms?map=/path/to/foo.map&", {'SERVICE': 'wms'}) == \
+        'http://example.org/wms?map=%2Fpath%2Fto%2Ffoo.map&SERVICE=wms'
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wps?service=WPS", {'request': 'GetCapabilities'}) == \
         'http://example.org/wps?service=WPS&request=GetCapabilities'
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/wps?service=WPS", {'request': 'GetCapabilities'}) == \
@@ -40,10 +43,10 @@ def test_build_get_url():
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WPS", {'service': 'WMS'}) == \
         'http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WPS&service=WMS'
     # Test with trailing ampersand and doseq False (default)
-    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&", {'typename': 'test', 'keys': [1,2]}, doseq=False) == \
+    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&", {'typename': 'test', 'keys': [1, 2]}, doseq=False) == \
         'http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&typename=test&keys=%5B1%2C+2%5D'
     # Test with trailing ampersand and doseq True
-    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&", {'typename': 'test', 'keys': [1,2]}, doseq=True) == \
+    assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&", {'typename': 'test', 'keys': [1, 2]}, doseq=True) == \
         'http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WFS&typename=test&keys=1&keys=2'
 
 
@@ -51,3 +54,18 @@ def test_build_get_url_overwrite():
     # Use overwrite flag
     assert build_get_url("http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WPS", {'SERVICE': 'WMS'}, overwrite=True) == \
         'http://example.org/ows?SERVICE=WMS'
+
+
+def test_time_zone_utc():
+    now = datetime.utcnow()
+    as_utc = now.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc)
+    assert as_utc.isoformat()[-6:] == "+00:00"
+
+
+def test_extract_time():
+    definite_sample = "<beginPosition>2006-07-27T21:10:00Z</beginPosition>"
+    indefinite_sample = "<endPosition indeterminatePosition=\"now\"></endPosition>"
+    start = extract_time(etree.fromstring(definite_sample))
+    assert start.isoformat()[-6:] == "+00:00"
+    stop = extract_time(etree.fromstring(indefinite_sample))
+    assert stop.isoformat()[-6:] == "+00:00"