The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that the Government has taken a series of measures to enhance energy security and improve efficiency in use of energy for sustainability. These inter alia include diversification in sources of imports, promotion of alternate fuels, increasing production of oil and gas, substitution of energy demand, improving refinery processes, notification of fuel efficiency norms, etc. Government has been promoting the use of biofuels with multiple objectives of reducing import dependency, generating employment, providing better remuneration to farmers, reduction in environment pollution, etc. in line with the National Policy on Biofuels 2018.
Various long term and short term policy initiatives have been taken to increase production of domestic oil and gas which inter alia include Discovered Small Field Policy, Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy, Policy framework for coal bed methane, etc. Further, Government has also provided functional freedom to National Oil Companies and facilitated wider private sector participation by streamlining approval processes including electronic single window mechanism.
Auto Fuel Vision and Policy-2025 had recommended the implementation of BS-IV emission norms from 01.04.2017, BS-V emission norms in respect of new vehicles from 01.04.2020 and existing models from 01.04.2021 and BS-VI emission norms from 2024. However, Government had leapfrogged to BS-VI emission norms (directly from BS-IV) in April 2020.
The improvement in the fuel quality from BS-IV to BS-VI was achieved by reducing the sulphur content from 50 Parts Per Million (ppm) in BS-IV to maximum 10 ppm in BS-VI compliant fuel. This has facilitated the development of upgraded / improved engine technologies such as introduction of advanced emission control system, installation of catalytic convertor or diesel particulate filters to reduce particulate matter and selective catalyst reduction systems for reduction in Nitrogen Oxides emissions in BS-VI compatible vehicles.