Outlets retailing E20 fuel will cover entire country by 2025: Petroleum Minister

Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday that the number of ethanol-blended fuel E20 stood at more than 9,300 in India, and the government was on track to take the project to cover the entire country by 2025. The government remains committed to its Ethanol Blending Programme and is working on sutainable aviation fuel (SAF), he said. 

Blending of ethanol into petrol has resulted in savings of over Rs 24,300 crore of foreign exchange in the supply year 2022-23 while state-run oil marketing companies saved about 509 crore litres of petrol, with an estimated net reduction of 108 lakh metric tonnes in carbon dioxide, the Union Minister said. 

E20, or petrol blended with 20 per cent ethanol, is part of the government’s commitment to reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, after achieving its goal of blending petrol with 10 per cent ethanol (E10). The government aims to take ethanol-blended petrol to 30 per cent by 2029-30. It has already advanced the E20 target by five years to 2025.

The minister also said that with the successful rollout of the Global Biofuels Alliance, India is taking a global leadership role in the biofuel supply chain. 

India's GDP growth came in at 7.7 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year, said Puri, who also serves as the Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs. 

The growth-energy correlation is evident in India, which is now the world’s third largest energy consumer, third largest consumer of oil, third Largest LPG consumer, fourth largest LNG importer, fourth largest refiner and fourth largest automobile market in the world, he added. 

The minister also talked about the various steps taken by the government to augment the country’s Exploration & Production (E&P) sector. 

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, India committed to an ambitious five-point ‘panchamrit’ pledge, which included its ambitious goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. 

Puri also highlighted the various measures taken by the government to increase share of natural gas from the current 6.3 per cent to 15 per cent in the primary energy mix, saying there will be an investment of $67 billion in natural gas infrastructure in the next 5-6 years.