Ethanol blending hit 20 percent but oil import dependence keeps surging

Savings from ethanol are tiny compared with the oil bill

India’s ethanol blending of petrol has reached 20%, but the bigger story is stubborn: crude oil import dependence has risen to over 90% from 84% earlier. The ethanol switch is saving only about USD 3 billion a year—roughly 2% to 3% of the total oil import bill—so the expected gains are not translating into lower reliance.