Life cycle greenhouse gas emission assessment of major petroleum oil products for transport and household sectors in India

Energy security concerns due to high oil import dependence and climate change concerns due to related greenhouse gas emissions are important policy discussions in India. Could life cycle assessment (LCA) of petroleum oil products provide inputs to crude oil sourcing and domestic oil pricing policies to address the two concerns? This paper presents a baseline study on LCA of petroleum products in India from Well to Storage depending on the oil source, type of refinery, product and the selected destinations. The LCA based GHG emissions are found to be higher by 4–12 per cent than GHG emissions from direct fuel consumption alone for LPG, 7–10 per cent for Gasoline, 3–9 per cent for Diesel and 4–10 per cent for Kerosene based on various supply chain routes supplying oil to six largest cities in India. Overall the energy used in oil exploration, refinery and transportation in the LCA have a share of 72–77 per cent, 11–15 per cent and 6–8 per cent, respectively. The paper proposes imposing a relative carbon cess for various oil products in different Indian cities. States could accommodate this additional carbon cess by reducing their respective state taxes without increasing the final delivery price to the consumers. ► LCA emissions are found to be higher by 4–12 per cent than direct fuel consumption emissions. ► Energy used in oil exploration, refinery and transportation in the LCA have a share of 72–77 per cent, 11–15 per cent and 6–8 per cent, respectively. ► Corresponding GHG emission shares are 60–66 per cent, 23–27 per cent and 5–8 per cent, respectively. ► The source of crude oil matters. E&P energy consumption is found highest for African countries. ► Differential carbon cess could be imposed without changing final delivery price to consumers.