By our correspondent
KARACHI: A pilot project to check the efficiency of ethanol blended gasoline and the response to this new fuel-mix receives from customers in Karachi was launched on Tuesday at a Pakistan State Oil (PSO) petrol pump.
E10 Gasoline - 10 per cent ethanol blended with motor gasoline - part of a test drive campaign, initiated by the government from Islamabad, is being sold at Rs56.26 per litre, which is Rs1.52 less than the Rs57.78 cost of standard gasoline.
“This trial will run for six months while the feedback from customers will be used to determine the future composition of fuel-mix,” Jalees Ahmed Siddiqi, Managing Director, PSO, told newsmen at the launch of the fuel, already being sold in Islamabad.
He said Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP) and PSO will monitor the 25 pre-identified vehicles to ascertain the efficiency of the fuel mix. “Ten per cent ethanol is a safe percentage” to be mixed with gasoline, he said, adding Brazil and other countries are already encouraging ethanol use on a larger scale.
Hoping to see the price of E10 Gasoline come down further in the long run, he said cost of ethanol is relatively lower than ex-refinery price of petrol as government has given tax-wavier on ethanol.
The fuel will be gradually introduced at other petrol pumps in the metropolis, he said. Currently E10 Gasoline is only selling from a PSO station located at Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA.
Siddiqi said general public is using the fuel-mix in Islamabad, where the project was initiated on August 16, 2006 after formal approval of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to promote ethanol usage in major cities.
In response to a query, he attributed the fall in consumption of petrol with popularity rise of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on back of comparatively low prices.
“This phenomenon is not new as fuel market is driven by supply-demand factor,” he added.