Lanka IOC (LIOC) will be introducing Euro 3 Diesel to the Sri Lankan market by 2014 and will also be investing Rs.90 million to modernise the required infrastructure to support this introduction, the company’s latest annual report stated.

“Post introduction of Euro 3 Petrol, the introduction of Euro 3 diesel would be a further step towards achieving environmental compatibility,” LIOC annual report 2012/13 said.

This new introduction is in tandem with the global paradigm shift towards more ecofriendly products, and LIOC hopes to introduce a range of “Greener” petroleum product variants.

Euro 3 diesel is a variant of diesel with a substantially lesser sulphur content of 350 parts per million (ppm) as compared to the current 2500 ppm of sulphur content of regular diesel.

Further, the cancer causing component produced by Euro 3 diesel is also significantly less than that of the diesel available in the market at present.

The report went on to state that LIOC would look into the possibility of introducing other eco-friendly products to supplement the existing portfolio.

“Plans are already underway to introduce environmentalfriendly petro-chemicals to the Sri Lankan market,” it noted adding that once the required approvals have been obtained it is hoped these plans would become commercially-active in the forthcoming year.

LIOC’s turnover for the year under review grew by 24 percent, in large part due to the growth in sales of Euro 3 petrol, Lanka Auto Diesel and the company’s bunkering operations.

Consequently, the turnover reached Rs.75.1 billion during the year as compared to Rs.60.4 billion registered in the preceding year.

“The niche market for the eco-friendly XtraPremium Petrol (LP 91 – Euro 3) proved to be highly lucrative, as the demand for the high-octane product continued to soar, leading to notable growth in volumes for the year under review,” LIOC Chairman, Makrand Nene said.