A fortnight before the BS VI emission norms mandate kick in from April 1, Indian Oil, the largest oil marketing company, has confirmed its readiness to dispense BS VI fuel, at nozzle level, from its over 27,500 fuel stations across the country.

In a message shared on Twitter, Chairman Sanjiv Singh said that on March 16, Indian Oil became totally BS VI-complaint in automotive fuels right from its refineries down to the pump nozzles at all its fuel stations spread across India.

"With this, we have fulfilled our commitment of ushering clean, conventional energy in the country and kept our promise of delivering the cleanest fuels in just three years which is an unprecedented achievement. Also considering that India is perhaps the only country to leapfrog directly from BS IV to BS VI ultra-clean petrol and diesel, the timely completion of this ambitious initiative will go a long way in enhancing India's credentials as a world-class refining hub in Asia, with the fourth largest refining capacity in the world."

"As you may be aware, Indian Oil refineries have implemented BS VI clean fuel projects at a combined cost of about Rs 17,000 crore. These included installation of new units like diesel hydro- treater, gasoline isomerisation, hydro-desulphurisation and revamp of existing processes, offsite and utility facilities, several of them being our own in-house developed technologies at our R&D Centre," said Singh in his statement.  

It may be recollected that by January 31, 2020, Indian Oil had achieved the conversion from BS IV to BS VI fuels at 80 percent of its 121 bulk storage terminals across India.

Indian Oil, which has invested about Rs 17,000 crore for upgrading its facilities to the new emissions standards, accounts for nearly half of India's petroleum products market share, with sales of about 90 million tonnes in 2018-19.  

State-owned OMCs have together thus far invested over Rs 30,000 crore to upgrade their refineries for the production of cleaner BS VI fuels. BS VI fuel contains five times fewer sulphur traces and about 70 percent lesser nitrogen oxide for diesel engines and 25 percent in case of petrol engines.

Since October 2010, Bharat Stage (BS) III emission norms were in place across the country which  allowed sulphur content in MS (petrol) & HSD (diesel) up to 150 ppm (parts per million) and 350 ppm respectively. From April 2017, BS IV norms, which allowed sulphur in MS (petrol) & HSD (diesel) upto 50 ppm level, kicked in. From April 2020, BS VI norms will bring down sulphur by 5 times which is a whopping 80 percent reduction and will help make the environment substantially cleaner.