Petroleum dealers are worried over oil marketing companies (OMCs) resuming the blending of ethanol with petrol in the State. After a long while, companies recently started blending in select terminals of the companies.
Instances of dealers being roughed up and even arrested, following complaints from customers on “water being mixed with fuel,” have been flooding social media, leaving dealers in the State worried. “Even on Friday in Hyderabad, there was an incident. Dealers were taken to task in Mumbai and the State dealers association had to write to the respective district administrations and the police asking them to check before taking action against dealers for water content,” explained a dealer.
In 2003, the national programme was to allow for blending of petrol and ethanol, in order to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, since ethanol was a bio-fuel and the mix would not compromise fuel efficiency. However, the availability of ethanol was an issue. Other aspects such as fixing the price of ethanol State-wise and allocation for the oil industry dogged implementation.
‘Precautions needed’
“We only want the OMCs to take necessary precautions before supplying such petrol to us. Our underground tanks need to be made moisture-free and if some chemical needs to be applied it has to be done. Low-volume dealers will have an issue since they tend to stock petrol for 10 days,” said a dealer.
R. Sitharthan, state level coordinator, oil industry (T.N. and Puducherry) and executive director, IOCL, (T.N. and Puducherry), said the blending was done scientifically at the company terminals as per standard engineering procedures.
Ethanol stored in moisture-free tanks is blended under pressure in the loading arm that fills tankers.
“After the blending, it becomes a homogenous product, one with the petrol,” he said. So, the question of absorbing atmospheric moisture and thus harming the engine does not arise, he claimed.
