Deora, Ramesh dedicate HPCL’s ‘clean petrol’ refinery to India

As a sign of their commitment towards a greener environment, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday, dedicated the “cleaner” petrol producing facilities of Hindustan Petroleum Corp’s (HPCL) Mumbai refinery to the country.

State-run HPCL today unveiled the upgraded petrol production units at its 5.5 million tonnes per annum refinery, which produces Euro-IV grade petrol that has low sulphur content.

“We dedicate HPCL’s Mumbai refinery Euro-IV project today, thereby fulfilling the commitment towards supplying cleaner fuel as envisaged in the Auto Fuel Policy. The total cost of the upgradation project is Rs. 1,731 crore,” Deora told reporters here.

The Auto Fuel Policy of 2003 requires Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp to sell petrol and diesel meeting the stringent Euro-IV specifications in 13 major cities and Euro-III specifications across India from April 1.

Accordingly, the oil PSUs have undertaken major upgradation of petrol and diesel producing units at their respective refineries, entailing investments of about Rs. 40,000 crore.

While Euro IV petrol contains 50 ppm (parts per million) of environment-polluting sulphur, Euro III petrol has sulphur content of 150 ppm, much lower than Euro II grade fuel.

“The Government of India is committed towards implementing regulations of mandatory fuel efficiency standards. The transport sector in India accounts for 7-8 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and it is our endeavour to bring it down for the sake of a greener economy,” Ramesh said.