In a big impetus for the nascent ethanol economy in the country, state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) are set to establish as many as 12 ethanol plants with an investment of Rs 5,000-7,000 crore, reports Financial Express.
Sharing details, Tarun Kapoor, Secretary, Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that the three oil majors have been asked to set up around 150 crore litre per annum ethanol manufacturing capacity out of 1,000 crore litre that will be required to meet the target by 2025.
This would help the nation achieve the Government’s ambitious target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025.
Kapoor also shared that the three companies will also simultaneously set up storage facilities for ethanol procured from other manufacturers, as the final blending is done by refiners and the oil marketing companies. These investments will likely be funded by the companies themselves.
It should be noted that the Government is aggressively pursuing the aim of reducing the use of petrol with zero blending and has also rolled out various incentives to push the production of ethanol for the same.