Lankan motorists deprived of super diesel: A penny wise pound foolish move?

With the current economic condition in Sri Lanka, the Government of Sri Lanka has reduced the import of petroleum fuel. In the recent past the import of some types of fuels like super diesel has been completely stopped. Whilst the number of vehicles relying on super diesel is relatively small, compared to the total universe, there are an estimated 200,000 diesel vehicles with common rail diesel CRD fuel injection that run on super diesel and get damaged when regular auto diesel is used. 

Regular diesel fuel contains sulphur, which derives from the original crude oil source and can still be present after refining. After combustion in the engine, this sulphur forms particulates that are a primary contributor to air pollution and the cause of harmful corrosion within the engine. Older diesel engine models prior to emission laws used to be built in a way that mangers the impact of sulphur in the fuel yet with global efforts to improve air quality and remove sulphur from fuel, and the requirement more environmentally friendly engines emerged. These newer yet more sensitive engines specifically built deliver lower emissions, are environmentally friendly and powerful yet required low sulphur fuels as they are prone to damage as in the presence of sulphur in fuel. 

The sulphur from diesel fuel creates sulphuric acid that causes corrosive wear on the metal surfaces of these engines. Corrosion of a surface within a dynamic system such as the cylinder wall/liner can lead to corrosive wear; as sulphuric acid corrodes the sensitive injectors leading to expensive repairs. These engines will start to fail one by one due to the incorrect fuel owners of these vehicles are forced to use. Once damaged the replacement of these expensive parts will have an impact on the economy as they will have to be imported. Seeing this many owners of vehicles with engines that require low suffer diesel (super diesel) have formed forums to discuss their plight and make appeals to the Government to import super diesel without which these vehicles become unable. 

Another very important request for the users of vehicle with CRD engines is to add on super diesel as separate fuel in the QR website. The process will require the super diesel vehicle users to re-register their vehicles in the QR website as super diesel vehicles. The reason for this being, when super diesel is available even regular diesel vehicle users like busses and trucks end up pumping super diesel for the sake of convenience, pumping whatever diesel that is available and easily accessible at that point of time. The limited quantity of super diesel imported will be used up by these vehicles that actually don’t need them. Therefore separating super diesel and auto diesel in the fuel QR will force diesel users to choose and stick to one type of fuel and the one who chooses one type of fuel will not be allowed to pump the other. This is fair for all, vehicle users will choose what they need and stick to it. 

The super diesel vehicle users of Sri Lanka appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka to make this type of fuel available soon as the market has been without super diesel for more than two months now. This deprivation will eventually lead to expensive repairs adding expensive imports of spare parts to our future foreign exchange requirements. The super diesel vehicle owners of Sri Lanka request the minister of power and energy to look into resolving the above mentioned issue urgently.