Use Of Domestically Produced Biofuels Being Promoted To Reduce Crude Imports, Support Agriculture Sector: Govt

The Centre on Wednesday (11 August) said that it is promoting the use of locally-produced biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to support the agriculture sector and reduce the import of crude oil.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Petroleum Rameswar Teli said, "Government is promoting use of domestically produced biofuels with multiple objectives of associated environmental benefits, boost to agriculture sector and reducing imports of petroleum crude".

He added that programmes such as Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme; Biodiesel Blending programme; Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) programme for Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) are being implemented across the country involving various stakeholders.

"Under the aforesaid programmes the biofuel blended product intended to be used in petrol, diesel and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) driven vehicles has to meet the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) specifications released from time to time," the minister said.

Currently, public sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are selling these blended fuels from their retail outlets, he added.

The minister further informed that the revised guidelines for granting authorisation to market transportation fuels i.e. petrol and diesel, among other things, prescribe that in addition to conventional fuels, the authorised entities are required to install facilities for marketing at least one new generation alternate fuel such as CNG, LNG or electric vehicle charging (EVC) points at their proposed retail outlets within three years of operationalisation of said outlet.