Ethanol blending to re-start in India

Oil marketing companies in India will finalize new tenders for 5% ethanol blended in petrol and will launch the fuel soon after at petrol pumps, according to a spokesman at Bharat Petroleum Corp. Oil marketing companies had been blending up to 5% ethanol in petrol since 2000 until October 2009, when a shortfall in ethanol caused a disruption, the spokesman said. The Union government has fixed an ad hoc uniform ex-factory price for ethanol throughout the country at Rs27 (US$0.61) per liter for ethanol procured by oil marketing companies. India has the capacity to produce three billion liters of ethanol a year but much of the installed capacity is idle, according to industry experts. (September 30, 2010)