Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) launched India’s 1st Reference Gasoline and Diesel Fuels produced by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).
- With this launch, India joined the elite group of nations with domestic production of ‘Reference’ Petrol and Diesel and IOCL becomes the 4th refiner in the world to produce ‘reference’ grade petrol and diesel.
- IOCL’s Paradip refinery (Odisha) will produce ‘reference’ grade petrol; IOCL’s Panipat Refinery (Haryana) will produce ‘reference’ quality diesel.
Note: The production of ‘reference’ fuel is another step towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India).
Key People:
Pankaj Jain, Secretary, MoPNG; and S.M. Vaidya, Chairperson, IOCL were also present at the event.
About IOCL’s Reference fuels:
i.Reference Gasoline fuels will be available in E0, E5, E10, E20, E85, E100 from the Paradip Refinery
ii.Reference diesel fuel will be available in B7 grade from the Panipat refinery.
iii.These indigenous reference fuels have met the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) specifications and it is available at better price with reduced lead time.
- The fuels have been tested in NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited refinery laboratories, IndianOil R&D Centre and Intertek (UK and India) laboratories.
iv.The domestic production of the reference fuels will reduce India’s import dependency and position India’s energy industry at the forefront of the global stage.
Benefits: The imported reference fuel costs Rs 800-850 a litre. Indigenous production of this fuel will cut down this cost to around Rs 500 per litre.
What is Reference fuels?
The Reference fuels (gasoline and diesel) are premium high-value products that are used to calibrate and test vehicles by auto Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) and testing agencies like the International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) and the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).
- The regular fuel has an octane number of 87, but premium fuel has an octane number of 91. Reference grade fuel comes with a 97 octane number.
Specifications:
i.For vehicle testing purposes, the fuel has to be of a higher grade than regular or premium petrol and diesel.
ii.The government regulations has listed as set of specifications, from Cetane number to flash point, viscosity, sulphur and water content, hydrogen purity and acid number, for fuels that are referred to as ‘reference’ petrol/diesel.
Uses of Reference fuels:
- These are used to ensure the accuracy and consistency of laboratory tests and engine performance evaluations.
- These reference fuels are used for emission testing of vehicles equipped with spark ignition engines.
Recent related News:
On 3rd August 2023, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the Ministry of Finance, upgraded the status of 2 oil sector Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) namely Oil India Limited (OIL) and ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL). The status of OIL and OVL has been upgraded to the status of Maharatna and Navaratna CPSEs respectively. Earlier OIL was a ‘Navaratna’ CPSE, while OVL was a Category-I ‘Miniratna’ CPSE.
About Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL):
IOCL is a Maharatna Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) under MoPNG. It was incorporated in 1964 by merging Indian Refineries Limited with Indian Oil Company under the Indian Companies Act, 1956.
Chairman– Shrikant Madhav Vaidya
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi
