Context

• The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched world-class premium-grade Petrol (with Octane number 100) in the country.

What is XP100?

• It is petrol developed by Indian Oil with octane number 100.
• The availability of XP100 puts India in an elite group of countries, having access to such high-quality oil. It will provide high quality and power to the engine.
• It will be rolled out in 15 identified cities across the country in two phases.
• Worldwide, 100 Octane petrol has a niche market for luxury vehicles that demand high performance and is available only in six countries like Germany, USA, etc.

About Octane numbering of Petrol:

• Octane number, also called Antiknock Rating, a measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking when ignited in a mixture with air in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine.
• Engine knock is a tapping, pinging sound that gets louder and more obnoxious as we accelerate.
• The octane number is determined by comparing, under standard conditions, the knock intensity of the fuel with that of blends of two reference fuels: iso-octane, which resists knocking, and heptane, which knocks readily.
• The octane number is the percentage by volume of iso-octane in the iso-octane–heptane mixture that matches the fuel being tested in a standard test engine.

Source: PIB