Ethanol blending hiked from 1.5% to 10% since 2013-14: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government has increased ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 to 10.17 per cent in 2022 and advanced its target to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol from 2023 to 2025-26, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said on Tuesday.

He said that India has been able to navigate through the most formidable energy crisis the world has seen since the 1973 oil crisis thanks to its energy security strategy focussing on diversification of energy supplies, increasing India's exploration and production footprint, and meeting energy transition through gas-based economy, Green Hydrogen and electric vehicles.

Puri said that India has increased the number of its crude oil suppliers from 27 countries in 2006-07 to 39 in 2021-22, adding new suppliers like Columbia, Russia, Libya, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea among others.

"At the same time, we haveA strengthened our relationship with countries like US and Russia," he added.

The minister further said that diesel prices, which in India between December 2021 and December 2022 rose by only 3 per cent, went up by 34 per cent in the US, 36 per cent in Canada, 25 per cent in Spain, and 10 per cent in the UK.