India On Track To Achieve 20% Ethanol Blending By 2025: Hardeep Singh Puri

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday that India is on track to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending by 2025.

Addressing the FT Energy Transition Summit India in New Delhi, Puri said that the government had set the target of 20 per cent blending by 2030 but would achieve it by October 2025.

"We saved Rs 91,000 crore on fossil fuel imports because of ethanol blending," said Puri.

Explaining why the government set the target at 20 per cent blending, Puri poked fun at initial scepticism about car parts needing to be replaced at those levels and said that such concerns had been proven wrong.

"Our studies showed that up to 20 per cent blending causes minimal wear and tear and any required adjustments can be made using inexpensive kits," he added.

In August 2024, the government, encouraged by the performance of the Ethanol Blended Programme, decided to advance the target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to the Ethanol Supply Year 2025-26.

Fuel of the future

On Green Hydrogen, Puri described it as the "fuel of the future" and stressed the need to lower its cost.

"Green hydrogen is a success story unfolding in India. We have every possible manufacturer of electrolyser in the world setting up shop their shop here. The world wants to see India develop as a major hub and manufacturer of electrolysers," said Puri.

Puri forecasts that major breakthroughs in cost reduction and scale in green hydrogen will occur around 2030 because of the developed ecosystem's "local demand, production, and consumption."

Untapped oil exploration potential

Puri touched upon India's potential to discover offshore reserves comparable to those found in Guyana.

"India has 3.5 million square kilometres sedimentary basins, and the government has recently cleared 1 million square kilometers of previously 'no-go' areas for exploration," he said.

Puri added that several bidding rounds under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) have taken place, and oil companies are now more interested in these areas.

He explained the government's efforts to engage with global oil majors and address their concerns regarding the regulatory framework and policy reforms would be tabled in the winter session of the Parliament beginning next month.

"We sat down with oil majors and asked them areas of policy tweaking. They gave us certain points which have got cabinet approval, and we will get that bill passed in the Parliament session beginning next month and enacted into a law," he said.