Oil companies adopt high tech measures

To tackle the prevalent adulteration of kerosene, petrol and diesel fuel, oil companies have adopted high tech measures to combat fraud. These measures include Global Positioning Systems (GPS), a smart card system for the delivery of kerosene through the Public Distribution System (PDS) and the introduction of markers for kerosene and naphtha. Major oil companies, including Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, are installing GPS on all their truck tankers carrying petrol, diesel fuel and kerosene to retail outlets to allow monitoring of such trucks and detect any deviation in their movements. IOC has plans to cover 19,500, Hindustan Petroleum 6,000 and Bharat Petroleum 4,000 tanker trucks each by March 31 this year. All the OMCs have been advised to introduce the marker system in PDS distributed kerosene as well. (February 10, 2007)