IOCs move to supply 0.05 per cent sulphur much before the deadline in Delhi comes as a slap in the face of the ministry of petroleum and natural gas which has obstinately maintained that it would not be possible to lower sulphur content in diesel any further in the near future. Market forces have finally pushed the oil industry to meet the demand for cleaner fuel.

NEW DELHI, 3. 9.1999: The Indian Oil Corporation’s move to supply ultra low sulphur diesel proves that the Indian refineries can be pushed to clean up their act fast. Ironically, only a few months back the ministry of petroleum and natural gas had stated officially that it would be difficult to further lower the level of sulphur from diesel. But laws of the market and people’s demand proved to have a much more potent effect.

Fearing loss of market in the face of competition from the Reliance group, which has informed the Environment Protection (Prevention and Control) Authority that they would be able to provide 0.05 per cent sulphur diesel to enable the industry to meet Euro II norms by 2000, IOC acted fast to stave off competition. Having lost the protection of monopoly, the refineries are competing on the basis of the environmental performance of the fuel for the first time.

As long as the government owned refinery sector enjoyed a monopoly it succeeded in resisting all pressures to improve quality of fuel. But now in the face of a tough competition from the private sector refinery it is moving fast to keep ahead of its competitors.

Centre for Science and Environment holds that though IOC’s move is laudable, this should not breed complacency about the maniacal pace of dieselisation in the city. The move to phase in CNG should not be undermined under any pretext. Supply of cleaner diesel does not put to rest the concerns over particulate pollution. Improvement in fuel quality in terms of sulphur content will help to bring down particulate pollution only by about 7 per cent. But even this gain is welcome as a large number of trucks and buses in the capital are still running on diesel. Only in this respect diesel with 0.05 per cent sulphur content will help.

The ultra low sulphur diesel should not be considered as a substitute for clean fuels like CNG. For the DTC, cleaner diesel can at best be temporary measure till the city bus fleet moves on to CNG. An immediate measure is also needed to stop dieselisation of private vehicles.

Diesel consumption in the transport sector will have to be controlled, as this would otherwise aggravate the problem of particulate pollution. Delhi today faces the challenge of reducing particulate pollution load by as much as 90 per cent and we cannot afford to add any more to this pollution. The level of small respirable particulate matter, which the Central Pollution Control Board has started monitoring only in March 1998, have consistently remained 3 to 5 times higher than the national standards and the maximum levels have even reached 8 times the standards during the winter of 1998.

According to the World Health Organisation, particulates are responsible for maximum health damage and are harmful even below the standards. Studies have shown that as the size of the particles gets smaller the share of diesel particles goes up. As much as 90 per cent of the diesel particles are less than 1 micron size and extremely harmful. Diesel consumption in Delhi is already very high. CSE’s concern about the growing dieselisation stems from the fact that the world over studies have shown that emissions from even clean diesel are harmful and carcinogenic. Also, the technology to control the ultra fine particles is still not available – not even in the West. The only solution lies in cutting down the consumption of diesel drastically.

For more information contact Anumita Roychowdhury or Chandrachur Ghose at Tel: +91 (011)-29955124, 29955125, 29956394