Kerosene vs. Modern Energy

Kerosene is still a vital fuel for cooking and lighting for people in the developing world. With global prosperity increasing, though, they are likely to switch to more modern forms of energy in the years to come.

Turning down the wick on kerosene (Shell World Online, March 14 2008)

by RUSTOM DAVAR
March 14, 2008

On Mumbai’s Port Trust Road, an artery that runs past the Indian city’s major refineries, cars vie for space with bullocks that amble along, each one pulling a cart bearing a large cylindrical tank. The tanks are painted either red or yellow, depending on which national oil company they belong to. The bullocks are heading for shops across the city where the kerosene they carry in 1,000-litre loads will be sold at government-subsidised prices. Not an uncommon sight in a country where 100 million homes still use kerosene lamps for light, and even more use it for cooking.

In India, and other parts of the developing world, kerosene is a fuel used by people on the middle rungs of the energy ladder – midway between basic, traditional fuels such as dung, agricultural residues and wood; and more modern energy such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity. Developing countries, in fact, consume nearly half the world’s production of kerosene. The developed world mainly uses kerosene as jet fuel, although it is used as home heating fuel in Japan and is commonly used elsewhere for cooking in remote areas.

Kerosene’s days as a domestic fuel in the developing world, however, may be numbered. As global wealth increases, rapidly developing countries such as India and China push up demand for more modern energy forms. Rural communities want better lighting and heating and more efficient cooking fuel. People abandon traditional methods of transport such as bullocks and donkeys in favour of cars and trucks. (The newly-unveiled Tata Nano car – one of the world’s cheapest – is expected to help triple India’s car sales by 2015.) And, of course, they take flights for the first time.

By 2030, says the International Energy Agency, the share of India’s population with access to electricity will rise to at least 96% from a 2005 level of 62%. It may even reach 100%.

Lighting up

Kerosene has been around since the earliest days of the oil industry. In the latter half of the 19th century, kerosene lamps lit up homes in cities like London, Paris and New York. Many in the oil industry, such as the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds, owed their fortunes to kerosene’s brisk sales. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, kerosene was no longer the first-choice lighting fuel. Advances in science – the invention of the incandescent electric light bulb by Thomas Edison, for example – had led the world’s richer nations to switch to more effective forms of energy, such as electricity.

However, even today, the benefits of electricity still haven’t reached many in the developing world, and – at least until that gap is bridged – they still need kerosene.

“I use kerosene for cooking, boiling drinking water and heating bath water,” says mother-of-six Mrs Jayashree Prakash Yadav, from the village of Vashinaka, near Mumbai. “The government-allotted quota is often insufficient for the needs of my family – it lasts about 15 days.” Yadav finds kerosene cheaper than LPG. Stoves that use LPG can cost 10 times as much as a kerosene stove, a significant investment for a low-income family like Yadav’s.

Rajni Ram, a domestic worker from Kandhar in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, also prefers kerosene. “It’s cheaper than electricity, so it’s used for lighting in poorer homes in my village.”

Expanding the grid

The Indian government’s subsidies, which it offers under its public distribution system, are one reason why many still use kerosene. However, the system has come under scrutiny, with calls for reform or for subsidies to be available only to those below the poverty line. If this happens, the affordable appeal of kerosene will vanish for many.

The United Nations says that of India’s 700-million rural population – 70% of its total – only a third receive generated power. Extending the electricity grid is often the easiest option for the government as it seeks to supply power to rural India. It believes dependence on kerosene will not last and has no plans to increase kerosene quotas for each state. “Kerosene usage will decrease in the future as electrification continues and more and more people switch to LPG for their cooking needs,” says Ratan Panda, Maharashtra State Co-ordinator for Oil Industries.

For now, though, the bullocks of Port Trust Road will continue to ply their well-worn routes daily, oblivious to the question marks over their future.