New Delhi: The government Thursday allowed the commercial use of alternative fuels such as kerosene, coal and biomass to ease pressure on LPG supply channels amid countrywide reports of shortage as the West Asia conflict rages on.
Compared to LPG, which is a clean fuel, kerosene, coal and biomass are polluter fuels that are harmful to the environment.
“The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEFCC) has advised State Pollution Control Boards to permit, for the duration of this crisis period, the use of biomass, RDF pellets, and kerosene/coal as alternate fuels for the hospitality and restaurant segment for a period of one month,” Sujata Sharma, joint secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said at an inter-ministerial briefing on India’s energy situation.
The briefing, attended by senior officials from the ministries of petroleum, shipping, external affairs, and information and broadcasting, outlined measures taken by the government to safeguard the country’s interests in view of the conflict.
On the supply of kerosene, Sharma said that the Centre allocates to states on a quarterly basis, at almost 1 lakh kilo litre per quarter.
She added that the Centre has issued an order to release an additional 48,000 kilo litres of kerosene to state governments, and that it is now the responsibility of states to identify true beneficiaries for distribution.
Sharma also told reporters that the coal ministry has directed Coal India Limited and Singareni Collieries Company to allot higher quantities of coal to states so supplies can be sent to small and medium enterprises and other consumers. “The senior officials of oil marketing companies are in touch with all the state governments and they have been directed to brief the state government on daily basis on supply situation, priority sequence and enforcement framework.”
On LPG, Sharma said domestic production has increased by three percentage points compared to the previous day. “Yesterday (Wednesday) there was a 25 percent growth in production, now it is 28 percent of our domestic LPG production.”
Government officials reiterated that steps are being taken to ensure uninterrupted LPG supply to domestic consumers. “We have a very vast network of retail outlets, almost 1 lakh retail outlets are operating in the country and majority of these are with public sector oil marketing companies and no dry out has been reported on any of these retail outlets.”
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal informed the press about the death of an Indian national on Marshal Island-flagged oil tanker Safesea Vishnu that was attacked off Khor Al Zubair port Wednesday.
“There were overall 28 crew members of which 16 were Indian nationals, but we lost one. Fifteen Indian nationals have been rescued and taken to Basrah…our embassy in Baghdad is in touch with them and is offering all assistance to the remaining 15 people,” he added.
Thursday marked 13 days since the US and Israel first launched an attack on Iran, triggering a war that has plunged parts of the world into an energy crisis. The conflict has halted energy supplies from the crucial Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of global crude flows and 50 percent of India’s energy supplies.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)