After being under immense criticism for lower quality, the petroleum sector was able to upgrade petrol to a higher octane number referred to as RON back in 2016. However, the petrol quality is again under fire for adding chemicals and additives to increase its quality.
The government took a decision earlier this year to reduce the manganese content in 90, 92, 95, 97 RON petrol for both local and imported from the existing 54mg per litre to maximum 40mg per litre until Oct 30, 2018, and to 24mg per litre from Nov 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019, and then finally bringing it to zero.
Recall that the issue flared up last year around the same time when Honda Motor’s Pakistan subsidiary, Honda Atlas Cars (Pakistan) Ltd, filed a complaint for high manganese content in the 92 RON (Euro II), which was causing engine knocking and choking of the catalyst converter, apart from serious effects on human health. After much commotion, test on petrol samples by OGRA and Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) revealed the existence of different kinds of chemicals and additives to increase the quality of low-quality petrol.
While the first deadline has been missed and the next is fast approaching, the downstream oil industry is nowhere close to fixing the petrol content as per the government’s latest directive. The refineries have been protesting the decision as this could have a severe impact on the supply of petrol in the country due to a drop in the domestic production volumes. It could lead to a fall in domestic production and hence increase imports by approximately 138,000 tons per annum, while increasing the Naphtha production by 102,000 tons per annum, as reported by the oil industry. The oil industry has since been seeking deferment as it will require additional investment and time
To iterate, the country did not have any limits for the manganese content in petrol previously. Though now in place, the reservations by the oil industry that has a significant influencing power is rendering the efforts futile. It’s believable that a steep phase out plan will affect production of petroleum products with additional costs, which could marginally impact the profitability of the refineries in the near term. However, going on with such high levels of the metal content is not sustainable. What is needed is that the government and the industry stakeholders sit together and map out a unanimous manganese phase-out plan, because until and unless all the stakeholders are on board for the transition, the deadlines will continue to be unmet. The goal should for refineries to invest in their facilities to ultimately move to higher grade fuel production,
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