Karnataka authorities recently sent 63 petrol samples to independent private labs and found out that ethanol levels were exceeding the legal 20 per cent limit in seven districts.
Karnataka’s Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, alongside the Legal Metrology Department, initiated inspections after oil marketing companies failed to clearly disclose ethanol levels in their in-house tests.
Following this 63 samples were collected from IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, Shell and Nayara fuel stations in seven districts, including Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Dakshina Kannada.
The tests were conducted by Shriram Research Institute in Bengaluru, which is ISO-certified and accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). Ethanol levels ranging from 13.5 per cent to 31.2 per cent were found in the tests.
Up to 31.2 per cent ethanol was found in samples from IOCL, while HPCL samples contained up to 30.5 per cent ethanol and the ones from BPCL had 26.5 per cent. Nayara samples showed up to 26.1 per cent ethanol while those from Shell contained up to 25.5 per cent.
Other samples showed ethanol levels close to 20 per cent or below. A Nayara sample contained 20.6 per cent ethanol, while 19.9 per cent was found in a BPCL sample, 19.2 per cent in a Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals sample and 13.5 per cent in a Shell sample.
The state government has demanded the Centre to take stringent action against the OMCs and to set up a nationwide mandate requiring every fuel station to clearly display the exact ethanol blending percentage on dispensing units.
