New Delhi: Indian soldiers deployed in high altitude terrains, like Siachen Glacier and other mountainous border areas, can now have access to cleaner fuel, which will be beneficial to not only them but to the environment too.
This is because Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a ‘Maharatna’ and a Fortune Global 500 Company, has launched Low Smoke Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO) to be supplied to the Army.
Regular supply of the upgraded SKO to Indian Army shall commence soon, the BPCL said in a statement.
Normal Kerosene emits substantial amount of smoke, which is harmful for the Army personnel when they use it at high altitudes, like Siachen Glacier in Ladakh, where oxygen level is very low.
Hence, the low smoke kerosene is a big step towards providing a cleaner fuel to our soldiers operating in very tough terrains.
Kerosene is the lifeline for the soldiers deployed at high-altitude and extremely cold terrains since no other source of fuel is available or feasible at those heights.
It is used by the soldiers for cooking and heating in those inhospitable conditions, like in Siachen glacier bordering Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
In this area, the soldiers are deployed at the altitudes ranging aroud 18,000 ft and temperatures dropping up to -50 degrees celsius.
“BPCL has emerged as the first OMC (oil marketing company) to commence the supply of the new LSLA grade SKO supplies to the Army, which will go a long way in improving the serving environment and alleviate the issues related to smoke and smell in use of SKO,” said the statement.
The Army consumes about 70 TKL/A of SKO for their Northern & Eastern commands, the statement said.
Northern command consumes higher quantity of about 45 TKL/A, it added.
During the product innovation process, BPCL’s Industrial and Commercial (I&C) SBU in association with the Corporate Research & Development Centre (CRDC) and Mumbai Refinery offered the upgraded SKO with tailored parameters related to smoke point & Aromatic content and conducted field trials at Karu (Leh -Ladakh) and Gangtok, the statement said.
Upbeat with the results of the successful trials, BPCL’s I&C unit has embarked on a tailored logistics arrangement and accordingly a batch has been moved to the Jammu depot.
Commenting on the development, S. Jena, Executive Director (Industrial & Commercial) of BPCL said, “Currently BPCL has a share of about 16% with the Indian Army, supplying close to 70 TKL of petroleum products annually and BPCL has partnered with Indian Army in provision of over 100 consumer pumps and ‘Scattered Storage locations’ at strategic locations besides actively pursuing key initiatives.”
