ONGC gets DGCA nod for ATF manufacturing

NEW DELHI: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has received Director General of Civil Aviation's approval for manufacturing aviation turbine fuel (ATF).

"The DGCA has granted approval to ONGC's Hazira plant for the manufacturing of ATF and Chemical Analysis and Physical testing of the ATF," a company official said.

The ATF produced at Hazira plant is Jet A1 type.  DGCA conducted final inspection of facilities and samples of ATF at Hazira plant on March 28. Later, these samples were sent to various laboratories like IOC, BPCL, HPCL, Mumbai and R&D, DGCA, Delhi for further testing.

"Hazira ATF has successfully passed all the testing parameters in all the laboratories," he said.

DGCA follows very stringent procedures before approving any company for the manufacture of ATF. It is mandatory for any organisation to get certification from the statutory body DGCA to supply ATF for civil aviation purposes.

The ATF producing company has to formally apply for DGCA approval. DGCA carries out inspection of company's facilities and the sample of ATF batch produced is collected in the presence of DGCA representative.

These samples are sealed by DGCA and sent to different independent labs having no linkages with the company. It is mandatory that the sample must pass in all the labs to get the certificate of approval from DGCA.

By producing ATF, Hazira plant has added one more feather to its cap. It is pertinent to mention that almost all the refineries use crude oil as feed while Hazira Plant has produced ATF from the gas based plant.