Oil PSUs start ethanol blending in 14 states

PUNE: The three public sector oil companies — IOC , HPCL and BPCL — have partially started the ethanol blending programme from the last week of November. By the end of the month, they expected to streamline the blending programme in 14 of the 20 notified states under the national ethanol blending programme.

Ethanol will be blended with petrol in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himchal Pradesh, New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The union territories of Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Havel and Daman and Diu will also be part of the programme.

While Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa — though notified states for the ethanol blending programe — will not be covered due to non-availability of ethanol. Tamil Nadu, another notified state, has also been excluded as the state government has not given permission for the blending operations.

“The ethanol manufacturers in Maharashtra have started supplying to the oil companies from November 24. The three companies together have signed purchase orders for 12 crore litre ethanol from companies in Maharashtra,” said RG Mane, secretary, Maharashtra Ethanol Manufacturer’s Association.

The three oil companies together plan to blend 70 crore litre ethanol at 5% with petrol by September 2011. It is expected that the three companies will be able to achieve 100% blending in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, where local ethanol supply is ample. However, in states which have to depend on ethanol imported from other states, the blending will be partial.

The streamlining of operations needs one more month as getting the excise and other clearances is time consuming. The oil companies will purchase ethanol at Rs 27 per litre. But including the excise and other taxes, their procurement price will be little higher than the actual purchase price.

However, sources in the oil firms indicated that the price of ethanol blended petrol will be same as that of the unblended petrol.

source: indiatimes