BPCL Introduces Superior Kerosene Oil With Low Smoke For Indian Army

Bharat Petroleum announced the launch of low-smoke superior kerosene oil (SKO) for the Indian Army in Jammu.

BPCL has emerged as the first OMC to begin supplying the Army with new LSLA-grade SKO supplies, which will go a long way toward improving the serving environment and alleviating issues related to smoke and odour in the use of SKO.

“Normal kerosene emits substantial smoke, which poses a health hazard to the Army personnel who use it at higher altitudes, where the oxygen level is very low. As a result, the low-smoke kerosene is a significant step toward providing cleaner fuel to our soldiers operating in difficult terrain,” the company stated in a statement.

“Supplying Low Smoke Superior Kerosene Oil to the army at a high altitude is our way of thanking them for their service to the nation and making their life a little easier,” said Sukhmal Jain, Director (Marketing) at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

“Currently, BPCL has a share of about 16 per cent with the Indian Army, supplying close to 70 TKL of petroleum products annually,” said S Jena, Executive Director (Industrial & Commercial), BPCL.

The Army requires SKO because it is used as fuel in the room heaters (Bukhari) at high-altitude camps. The Army uses approximately 70 TKL/A of SKO for its Northern and Eastern commands. Northern command consumes a greater quantity, approximately 45 TKL/A. Low-smoke kerosene is an important step toward providing cleaner fuel.

BPCL's Industrial and Commercial (I&C) SBU, in collaboration with the Corporate Research & Development Centre (CRDC) and Mumbai Refinery, offered the upgraded SKO with tailored parameters related to smoke point and aromatic content during the product innovation process and conducted field trials in Karu (Leh-Ladakh) and Gangtok, it said.