Low-grade fuel for bikes not viable

LAHORE: The government’s plan of introducing low-grade and low price fuel for the motorcycles might not be viable as it will undo the progress made by the petroleum sector during the recent years and push the country back to three decades ago standards.

Further, introducing an another grade fuel will cost highly for the oil marketing companies as a parallel infrastructure would be required to be established with big investment.

Additionally, enforcement of another grade by the government would be an uphill task as it had faced numerous problems in the past when three different grade fuels (Regular, Super and Hi-Octane) were available in the country. The complaints of adulteration and sales of low-grade fuel at higher grade in the smaller districts and distant villages would be increased as it was witnessed in the past. Further, the government could not be able to take any action against these sellers as in those distant areas fuel stations are owned by the ‘influentials’ and could not be nabbed in the past too.

According to the industry officials, currently Naphtha which is lower grade fuel with Research Octane Number (Ron 82) is insufficient to meet the complete demand of the motorcycles.

Thus, the government will add another burden on oil import bill if it introduced Ron82 for the motorcycles. The oil consumption of the bikes is almost 45 to 50 percent of the total oil consumed in Pakistan, while almost only 20 percent of Ron82 could be produced from locally available Naphtha by the oil refineries.