October 30, 2018 (MLN): The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and the oil industry have requested a delay in the manganese phase-out plan for local refineries for at least six months, to allow the completion of an independent study on the amount of time required by local refineries to upgrade their hardware.
A committee including Ogra and the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) had finalized Enar Petrotech and Zishan Engineers to carry out the study. However, recently, the committee told the Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Energy that its deadline of completing the study by end-October was impossible and the consultants needed further 6-8 months to complete the study.
The timeline for phasing out metal contents in all the production line of petrol (90RON, 92RON, 95RON and 97RON) was finalised in consultations spread over six months with the industry in May this year.
From November 1, 2018 and till April 30, 2019, the limit of manganese in 95 and 97 Ron imported petrol will be set at 10 mg per litre which will then be banned. Pakistan did not have standards for metal contents until a complaint by Honda Pakistan when it was noted that petrol being sold in the market contained 54-96 mg per litre.
The OCAC had called upon the government to continue with limit of 54-96 mg per litre of manganese content until local refineries were able to upgrade their hardware to a configuration that allows production of petrol with higher RON and consequent reduction in manganese dosage.
The Petroleum Division is expected to take a decision regarding the recommendations proposed by the committee on Tuesday 30th October.
