Indian state-controlled refiners received 146mn litres (918mn bl) of ethanol from 25 August to 21 September compared with 170mn l during 21 July-24 August, according to the oil ministry.
The refiners ordered 2.06bn l until 7 September in a tender issued for the 2019-20 supply year, according to the latest oil ministry data. They received 1.39bn l of ethanol up to 21 September for the December 2019-November 2020 ethanol supply year.
India's National Policy on Biofuels 2018 has a 5pc blending target for biodiesel with diesel by 2030 and 20pc blend of ethanol in gasoline. Ethanol purchases under the ethanol blended petrol programme increased to 1.89bn l in the 2018-19 supply year compared with 665mn l in the 2016-17 supply year, the government said.
India's ethanol blending ratio with gasoline averaged around only 5.1pc in the December 2019-August 2020 ethanol blending supply year, below a state-set 10pc ethanol blending target by 2022.
Refiners also bought 4.76mn l of biodiesel during April-August to blend with diesel. India has a 5pc biodiesel blending target by 2022.
The refiners have received 37 expressions of interest under a 1 July tender for the supply of biodiesel extracted from used cooking oil (UCO). There are 60 Indian production sites with a capacity of 1,147 t/d to supply biodiesel made from UCO.

