India to go directly to Euro-VI fuel standards by 2020
Oil refineries need to invest Rs80,000 crore in upgrading to cleaner fuel specifications
New Delhi: In a bid to curb vehicular pollution, India will go straight from Euro-IV complaint petrol and diesel to Euro-VI fuel by 2020, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.
“We are not going for Bharat Stage-V (or Euro-V) petrol and diesel as there is not much difference between BS-V and BS-VI (Euro-VI) fuel. We will bring BS-VI fuel by 2020,” he told reporters.
At present India has BS-III equivalent of Euro-III specifications across the country, and BS-IV in major cities. “BS-IV will be supplied in most big cities by April 2016, and all over the country from April 2017,” he said.
“From BS-IV we will directly go to BS-VI,” he said. “We don’t see a need for refineries to first invest in upgrading fuel quality to BS-V and then again invest to upgrade to BS-VI,” he added.
Oil refineries will need to invest ₹ 80,000 crore in upgrading petrol and diesel quality to meet cleaner fuel specifications by 2020. Previously, the fuels meeting Euro-IV or Bharat Stage-IV specifications were to be supplied throughout the country by April 2017, and BS-V or Euro-V grade fuel by April 1, 2020.
But now instead of a step-wise upgrade from BS-IV to BS-V and then from BS-V to BS-VI, the government plans to switch over directly from BS-IV to BS-VI auto fuels by 1 April 2020, Pradhan said.
BS-IV fuels contain 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur, while BS-V and BS-VI grade fuel will have 10 ppm sulphur. Oil refineries had upgraded technology and invested over ₹ 55,000 crore for production and supply of BS-III and BS-IV fuels. Another ₹ 80,000 crore investment would be required for further upgrades.
At present, BS-IV auto fuels are being supplied in the whole of north India covering Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, parts of Rajasthan and western UP.
The rest of the country has BS-III grade fuel. From 1 April 2016, all of Goa, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha; Union Territories of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Andaman and Nicobar will get BS-IV fuel.
The rest of the country will get supplies of BS-IV fuel from 1 April 2017. “This government reiterates its commitment to reducing carbon footprint. We have given in writing to the NGT (National Green Tribunal) on reducing fuel emission and we will stick to that,” Pradhan said.
To reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, use of compressed natural gas as transport fuel in cities is being encouraged. PTI
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First Published:31 Dec 2015, 07:02 PM IST
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