E20 petrol supplied by PSU oil companies across the country meets quality standards, claims Ministry

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has stated that E20 petrol supplied by public sector oil marketing companies across the country fully complies with the prescribed quality standards. According to an official PIB Delhi report, a total of 893 samples from 27 states and Union Territories were tested in this regard, and all of them were found to be within the specified limits.

This clarification comes in the wake of a newspaper report issued by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Legal Metrology of the Government of Karnataka. The report had claimed that petrol sold at some retail outlets in Karnataka state has an ethanol blend ranging from 26 percent to 31 percent.

Strongly reacting to these claims, three public sector oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) — clarified that the claims made in these reports are not supported by checks conducted in accordance with prescribed statutory and technical procedures. The E20 petrol supplied by all three OMCs across the country, including Karnataka, complies with the Bureau of Indian Standards specification IS 17021 for ethanol-blended motor gasoline.

Oil marketing companies have also expressed serious concerns regarding the sampling and testing methodology adopted during the verification process of October 2026. Specific procedures for drawing, retaining, testing samples, and reporting results are laid down under the Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply, Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 2005 issued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) 2024.

Under this prescribed procedure, six one-litre samples are to be drawn, out of which two samples are handed over to the dealer against receipt, two samples are kept by the oil company or department, and the remaining two samples are sent to a laboratory specified under Schedule III of the Control Order or listed in the official gazette. The sample labels must be jointly signed, and test results are to be communicated to the dealer and the oil company within the stipulated timeframe.

The samples drawn during the September 2026 exercise were sent to OMC laboratories designated by the State Level Coordinator and tested for the quality parameters requested under MDG 2024. However, it is reported that samples during the subsequent October exercise were drawn without the participation of OMC representatives. Despite requests by the State Level Coordinator, the OMCs did not receive the corresponding retention samples, complete outlet-wise details, or laboratory reports.

The OMCs further stated that the recorded findings are based on certificates issued by a third-party laboratory instead of testing conducted at the laboratory specified under the Control Order. These certificates do not provide the complete technical details required to independently verify the recorded ethanol content. The absence of counter-samples and prescribed documents also denied the OMCs and the concerned dealers the opportunity to seek verification or re-testing.

Concerns regarding the ethanol testing methodology mentioned in the certificates were also highlighted in the preliminary technical evaluation by OMCs. Under IS 17021:2018 (Amendment No. 3, August 2025), the ethanol content in E20 fuel must be determined by prescribed methods such as Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) under ASTM D5845, water extraction under Annex C, or Gas Chromatography under ASTM D4815/D6839.

Importantly, when Gas Chromatography under ASTM D4815/D6839 is used, the sample must first be diluted 1:1 with oxygenate-free petrol and the result corrected against an E10 certified reference material. However, the certificates cited in the Karnataka press release merely mention “Ethanol % by Gas Chromatography” without specifying the applicable standard test method, the prescribed dilution procedure, or the reference material used for calibration.

The recorded density readings also need scrutiny. The certificates indicate a density ranging from 0.742 to 0.749 g/cc for the samples claimed to have 26% to 31% ethanol. This is lower than the 0.752 to 0.760 g/cc recorded for E20 samples tested during QCC-1 and QCC-2 surveys by OMCs. Since the density of ethanol is higher than that of petrol, the density of the blend is expected to increase with higher ethanol content.

The Centre for High Technology (CHT) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is continuously monitoring ethanol blending and fuel quality at OMC retail outlets. As part of the OMC/CHT Quality Coordination Cell (QCC) exercise, 893 E20 samples were drawn from depots and retail outlets of IOCL (330), BPCL (280), and HPCL (283) across 27 states and Union Territories.

These samples were tested for ethanol content in refinery and OMC quality-control laboratories as per IS 17021, Annex C. All 893 samples were found to be within the prescribed ethanol content range of 19% to 21%. Notably, all 56 samples tested in Karnataka also complied with the prescribed specifications, recording ethanol content between 19% and 20% with an average of 19.30%.