Adequate supply continues to hamper India’s ethanol program

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) in India are unable to meet the country’s mandated Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Program requirements of 10% ethanol blended in petrol, local media reported. The supply of ethanol is currently too low to fully implement the current 5% blending level, reports said. “Against an annual requirement of 1.05 billion liters of ethanol for blending up to 5% in the entire notified area, only 558.70 million liters of ethanol could be contracted in 13 States and three United Territories. Out of this, only 287.90 million liters could be procured up to July 31, 2011,” the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas said. (August 19, 2011)