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Govt plans 10% ethanol blended petrol

Indian petrol will be blended with 10-per cent ethanol in about two years in order to reduce the country's dependence on imported crude oil, Oil Minister Ram Naik said on Thursday.

From January, it will be compulsory for petrol stations to sell petrol with five per cent ethanol in nine states, which consume 60 per cent of oil products sold in India.

In October 2003, the five-per cent blend would be made compulsory in the rest of the country, and then the ethanol content would be doubled after another year or so, he said.

"I cannot say exactly when, but it will be introduced around the end of 2004," Naik told reporters after receiving a report on the blended fuel from Indian Oil Corp, the country's largest refiner.

The introduction of ethanol-blended petrol in nine states in January will require 320 million litres of ethanol a year, which is about 25 per cent of the country's capacity.

To sell the 10-per cent ethanol blend, the sugar industry would have to set up facilities to produce one billion litres of ethanol from various sources apart from molasses and sugarcane juice, Naik said.

India imports 70 per cent of its crude oil requirement.

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