India looking to increase ethanol blending with petrol to over 20%: Puri

Guwahati: India is looking at increasing its target to blend ethanol with petrol to more than 20 per cent and has formed a committee under the NITI Aayog for this, Petroleum Minister Hardeep S Puri said on Wednesday. Addressing the Advantage Assam 2.0 business summit in Guwahati, he said 19.6 per cent blending has already been achieved. "We will be looking at more than 20 per cent blending of biofuel. Already a NITI Aayog group has been set up and they are looking into it," he said. "We had set a target of 20 per cent blending by 2026, but already achieved 19.6 per cent. I am sure we will touch 20 per cent next month," he added.

Puri said that the country has a capacity of 1,700 crore litre of blending, and already 1,500 crore litre are being utilised. With India spending USD 150 billion on different types of fuel imports, he said that one area where the attention is lacking is green hydrogen. "The green hydrogen price is presently USD 4.5. If you can bring it closer to USD 2.5, there will be a revolution. We will see a massive shift to green hydrogen from traditional fuel," the minister told leaders of PSU and private energy firms present at the session on hydrocarbons. He said that every country is moving towards clean energy, but it has to be done by surviving the challenges and demands of the economy. "For an economy like India growing at 6-7 per cent, it needs fuel. We need to survive the present for a cleaner future," he added. Puri said all the fossil fuel production companies will achieve net zero by 2045, even though India has developmental challenges. "A country on the global stage will be assessed with the energy consumption it makes. If the energy consumption is slowing, it means the economy has started showing the red flag," he said. "We are using 5.5 million barrels per day of crude, up from 5 million barrels. I foresee that India will be consuming 6.5-7 million barrels in the short to medium term," he said.

On exploration and production (E&P) of hydrocarbons, Puri said the output is likely to reach 5 million ton by 2030. "If that happens, India will become a USD 7-10 trillion economy from around USD 4 trillion at present. We have been talking to Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron and others, and all are interested in coming to India," he said. Puri said 1 million sq km will be opened up under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme (OALP) out of the total around 3.5 million sq km of sedimentary basin in the country. Already, 2,00,000 sq km has been opened under the OALP, which is a mechanism that allows investors to bid for blocks of their choice based on E&P data. "In OALP Round 9, 38 per cent bids came for this area. I hope that bulk of the bids will come for this area during the OALP 10," he said.