In a written reply to a Lok Sabha question, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG), Rameswar Teli notified the progress of implementation of government’s Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Program and the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT). The programmes aim to achieve various goals including securing environmental sustainability, diminishing import dependency, and saving foreign exchange in India.
To promote the use of compressed biogas (CBG) as an automotive fuel, the SATAT programme commenced on October 1, 2018, with oil marketing companies (OMCs) soliciting expressions of interest from potential CBG producers. Until February 2022, oil PSUs have issued Letters of Intent for the development of 3,160 CBG facilities for CBG procurement. Under the EBP programme, the Government of India has already achieved the intermediate target of 10 percent average blending in the country in June 2022 ahead of the target date of November 2022. An estimated saving of foreign currency worth Rs 184. 48 billion have been made during the last three ethanol supply years.
Recently in June 2022, MOP&NG notified that oil companies shall be selling ethanol-blended petrol with a share of ethanol up to 20 percent with effect from April 1, 2023. A target with 20 percent blending of ethanol in petrol has been put forward for 2025-26. Similarly, an indicative target of 5 per cent biodiesel blending in diesel has been proposed to be implemented by 2030.
