The start of 2025 couldn’t have been better for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG). The month of January saw the ethanol blending with petrol reaching a record 19.6% marking the highest in the history and expediting the journey of India to be a global biofuels’ powerhouse.
MoPNG is driving ethanol blending under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme, aligned with the National Policy on Biofuels. The goal is to achieve 20% ethanol blending by the Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26.
Last January, 82.1 crore litres of ethanol were used for blending. During the November 2024 to January 2025 period, the total blending volume hit 222.9 crore litres.
The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) procured 91.7 crore litres of ethanol in January and 200.8 crore litres during the November-January period of ESY 2024-25. The official statement of the Ministry held, “Ethanol blending in petrol was 19.6% in January 2025, with cumulative blending of 17.4% from November 2024 to January 2025.”
Recently, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that India would achieve its 20% ethanol blending target by March this year. India’s ethanol production capacity stands at about 1,683 crore litres and the blending targets of the government looks achievable.
For ESY 2024-25, achieving 20% blending will require around 990 crore litres of ethanol. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), India’s ethanol demand tripled from 2017 to 2021. Blending rates rose from 2% in 2017 to 8% by mid-2021.
Government owned OMCs met the 10% ethanol blending target in June 2022, five months ahead of schedule for ESY 2021-22. The blending rate increased to 12.06% in ESY 2022-23 and reached 14.6% in ESY 2023-24.
As per details shared by Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the EBP programme over the last decade contributed about ₹92,409 crore in payments to farmers. It also saved over ₹1,08,655 crore in foreign exchange, substituted 185 lakh tonnes of crude oil, and reduced net CO2 emissions by approximately 557 lakh tonnes. As per one estimate, the 20% ethanol blending in petrol could benefit the farmers with direct cash benefits of ₹35,000 crore every year.
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