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New Delhi, August 8
The Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have reassured motorists that E20 petrol remains within prescribed quality standards following recent reports raising concerns over moisture and chloride contamination in ethanol-blended petrol. According to the Centre government official statement released on Saturday, the companies said that they had carried out additional nationwide testing across the entire E20 supply chain, from refineries and ethanol distilleries to storage depots, tankers and retail outlets. They said the results showed no widespread contamination or reason for alarm.
More than 100 randomly selected petrol samples from refineries were tested, with chloride levels recorded at or below 1 parts per million (ppm), according to the OMCs.
Ethanol supplied by distilleries also met the required standards. A joint task force involving OMCs and the Centre for High Technology (CHT) tested samples from 80 distilleries over the past 10 days, with all recording chloride levels below 3 ppm.
More than 80 samples collected from OMC terminals and depots across the country also showed chloride levels below 3 ppm, the companies said.
At petrol stations, more than 1,000 samples have been collected under an intensified monitoring programme. Of the 160 test reports analysed so far, chloride levels were found to be between 0 and 3 ppm, contradicting claims of levels running into several hundred ppm.
Four isolated cases of elevated chloride levels were detected during the checks. Supplies from those locations were suspended immediately, followed by investigations and corrective measures before operations were restored.The OMCs have also stepped up checks for water entering underground fuel storage tanks. About 90,000 retail outlets have begun mandatory inspections, with tanks being checked eight to 12 times a day. The companies said no water ingress had been detected so far.
Officials said chloride monitoring is now being carried out at several points in the supply chain, including refineries, distilleries, terminals, depots and retail outlets.
The OMCs said mobile fuel-testing laboratories had also been deployed and test results were being independently validated by fuel laboratories.
The companies said fuel quality would continue to be monitored closely and any deviation would trigger immediate corrective action.
They urged consumers to continue using E20 petrol with confidence, saying fuel supplied through the OMC network conforms to prescribed specifications and is subject to multiple quality checks.
The North News
