OIL CONSERVATION

THE NEED OF THE HOUR FOR INDIA’S SELF RELIANCE & DEVELOPMENT

Energy is inseparable from matter – all material phenomena are associated with energy changes. The original source of energy was muscle energy, then came the control & use of fire. Then came in quick succession the use of oil, coal, & natural gas. The appetite for energy, more specifically oil, increased with each passing day and the strategic & environmental consequences were ignored for a long time. It was only the ‘oil Shocks’ of late 1973 & 1979, when oil price increased drastically that the seriousness of ‘oil conservation’ was realized.

The oil crisis is going to strike again in the near future. The industrialized & the developing countries like India rely heavily on imported oil. They remain vulnerable to the supply disruptions & economy destabilizing price hikes which characterized the 1970s. AT the current consumption rate, the world remaining supply of recoverable oil will last for only about 100 years. India is likely to loose all its oil resources in the next three decades. India as many other developing countries, continues to devote a substantial portion of its export earnings to pay for the oil to import. The economic impacts of the ‘Oil Shocks’ on oil importing developing countries have been more severe than the effects felt in the developed countries. These countries have had to devote increasing amounts of foreign exchange to pay for their oil import bills, thereby diverting economic resources from investments vitally needed for development.

To cover the cost of oil and also to finance some major projects, many developing countries turned to borrowing from banking institution, which is why the debt by all developing countries increased from 15 to 34 percent of GNP between 1974to 1984. Due to the increase in oil production in India largely from offshore sources, India from being an importer of 2/3^rd of its oil need in 1981 needed to import only 40% of oil to meet its requirements. Now the question is should India try to reduce oil consumption by initiating and implementing various ways in the domestic, agricultural & transport sectors OR should it try to persist in its so far unsuccessful strategy of trying to increase indigenous oil production.

Though the petroleum industry of India dates back to 1886 when oil exploration began in upper Assam and adjoining areas, it made headway only after independence, more particularly over past two decades. Oil is critical to India’s economy, starting with a modest level of indigenous crude production of only 0.25 million tones in 1950-51, the production of domestic crude oil reached the peak level of 33 million tones in 1990-91. It is expected to cross 40 million tones by 1996-97. The major contribution to crude oil production has come only after the discovery of the off shore oil fields, Bombay High being the most prestigious among them.

The transport sector consumes about 60% of the total oil used in the country in 1980-81.

Diesel accounts for 78% while the gasoline accounts for 12% followed by aviation fuel 9% and furnace oil 1%. The major consumption petroleum product is Diesel (57.7%) followed by kerosene (20%) according to a more recent survey. So, India’s problem is in general a problem of the two middle distillates, diesel & kerosene and more specifically a diesel problem. The bulk of the diesel consumption is by trucks. In 1980-81, trucks consume 63% of the diesel which is about six times the diesel consumption of railways. As far as freight is concerned, however, trucks and diesel locomotives haul approximately the same freight. Despite this inefficiency, the share of total freight transported by trucks has increased enormously from 16% to 33% in between the years 1950-51 to 1976-77. This figure is still increasing with alarming rate.

One of the other fields of worry is the energy for the poor basically to illuminate their houses. About 88% of rural and 51% of urban households, together constituting 4/5^th of the country’s 116 million households, depends wholly on kerosene for lighting. The consumption of kerosene was 4 million tones in 1980 and from which 40% was imported.

The truck operators have been able to achieve average lead distances much greater than the break-even distances because the cost of diesel is too low. But, the diesel prices cannot be increased without affecting the price of kerosene, because kerosene is substitutable for diesel in diesel engines and if the price of kerosene is also increased then the poor will suffer. Railway consumes about 80% less fuel per tonne-kilometer than trucks. So, to reduce the consumption of diesel markedly, carrying freight should be shifted mainly to rails. To reduce the consumption of kerosene efforts should be made to electrify all homes. The electrification of all homes would make kerosene unnecessary as an illuminant. If the poor do not need much kerosene then its price can be increased with diesel’s price which will shift the freight carriage to the railways automatically.

In pursing self reliance & development of India, policies should seek to reduce dependance on costly, insecure imported oil. After the oil shocks of 1970’s, a large fraction of export earnings of India is now committed to pay for the imported oil. The dependence on imported oil should be reduced by seeking other alternatives as policies promoting sustainable indigenous energy production and conservation technologies. While much energy efficiency improvement can be achieved with technology that is already available, even more dramatic improvements could be made with technology still under development. To achieve all this technical manpower is needed to implement any energy strategy-for the analysis of future needs, for technology assessment, for R&D and for planning and management. To have a smooth transition from oil, India should adopt the global policies of reducing dependence on oil, enabling a shift of economic resources for expenditure on oil imports to other developmental purposes and fostering a more stable environment for investments in efficient use of energy and renewable energy resources.

In the conclusion we can say that the major consumer of oil in India is the transport section, trucks being the major consumer of diesel. To reduce the consumption of oil, more specifically diesel, the freight carriage should be done more by the railways. The consumption of kerosene should also be reduced by electrifying maximum number of households. The policies for oil conservation should aim at reducing the dependence on imported oil, seeking alternatives and developing manpower to create indigenous technologies for energy conservation. Today, a major portion of our export earnings go away with the need to import oil and we are not left with enough fund to pay for the other developmental projects. So, we must pledge to conserve oil at each level to contribute to the self reliance and development of India.

This Essay fetched me First Prize of Rs. 600/- in 1997 (My First Earning). While Copenhagen failed, this is my "two cents" towards oil conservation which will lead to environment conservation. Go green !!