Government to support Ethanol blending of Petrol in a big way: Petroleum Minister
Government to support Ethanol blending of Petrol in
a big way: Petroleum Minister
The Minister of State (Independent
Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has expressed
the Government’s commitment for time bound execution of initiatives to
introduce Ethanol blended Petrol and Bio diesel in the country. Inaugurating a
National Seminar on “Lignocellulose to Ethanol- Roadmap for India” in New Delhi
today, he said that Oil Marketing companies have already invited bids for 120
crore litre of Ethanol for blending in petrol for sugar year 2015-16 which
would be 5% (approx) of the country’s total petrol consumption.
Listing out the benefits of using Ethanol blended petrol, Shri Pradhan said that it will not only help in value addition for the farmer’s produce but will also reduce foreign exchange expenditure. He said that added benefits of blended petrol would be in the form of employment generation, entrepreneurship promotion and environment protection. He said that Ethanol blended petrol was introduced in 2003 but the process got impetus only in 2014-15 when new government took policy decisions to incentivize petrol blending.
Shri Pradhan said that there is a demand for Ethanol for blending with petrol but there are technological and financial challenges which needs to be overcome. The Petroleum Minister called upon various departments of Government, State Governments, Academic and Research Institutions to work together to find solution to these challenges. Shri Pradhan said that molasses to Ethanol conversion is already going on and the Government has taken up second generation of lignocelluloses to Ethanol production to utilize agricultural residues/wastes, and achieve the target of 10% Ethanol blending.
The National Seminar was aimed at accelerating the EBP programme in the country and to draw up a roadmap for establishing ethanol industry from lignocellulosic route thus reducing the foreign exchange outflow, generate rural employment and protect environment.
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Joint Remarks of Mr Josh Frydenberg MP, Minister
for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia with Shri Piyush Goyal, Union
Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy , Parliament
House, Canberra , on 10th February ,2016
The following is the transcript of Joint Remarks of Mr Josh Frydenberg
MP, Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia with Shri Piyush
Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy ,
Parliament House, Canberra , on 10th February ,2016.
“JOSH FRYDENBERG: I warmly welcome Minister
Goyal and his delegation to Australia. The Minister has had a nearly 30 year
career in politics after a distinguished career in investment banking and
having been on the board of the State Bank of India. As the Minister for Power,
Coal, New and Renewable Energy, he has an important function within the Indian
Government but also within global energy markets. Minister, as you know,
Australia is a major player in global energy markets. We have just become the
world’s largest exporter of thermal coal and we will be the world’s largest exporter
of LNG, overtaking Qatar by 2020.
India is a major player in the global energy markets, too, being the
world’s third largest consumer of energy. I was interested to read how energy
demand has doubled in your country since 2000 and by some predictions will
quadruple over the coming decade and it was very interesting to read how you’re
going to strengthen your commitment to renewable energy, quadrupling the amount
of energy from that source by 2022.
So, today Minister Goyal and I will participate in the third
Australia-India Energy Security Dialogue. It was started by Minister Hegde from
India and Minister Fischer from Australia back in 2000. It’s a very important
opportunity to strengthen the bilateral ties between our two countries.
We have $15 billion worth of annual two-way trade, we export some $5
billion worth of coal to India, and I was very pleased to see that we’ve just
signed our first export contract of LNG to India from the Gorgon project. So, I
think there’s a lot that our two countries can do together – exchanging
information on renewable energy, exporting the many resources we have and
helping the Indian economy go from strength to strength.
I very warmly welcome you.
PIYUSH GOYAL: Thank you very much,
Minister Frydenberg. It’s indeed a pleasure to meet you and see the enthusiasm
that I saw in Australian business in the last two days also reflected in your
initial opening remarks. In fact, your own career in some sense reflected a little
bit of what I have been doing, you’ve worked with Deutsche Bank, have a very
illustrious background, and in fact I come from Mumbai and your university has
now tied up with IIT Bombay to set up a centre of excellence. So, in some sense
I feel very close to you and I do see India and Australia working together,
particularly after the very successful engagement that Prime Minister Modi had
with your Government, both in India and in Australia.
Going forward, I think energy is going to be the defining feature of our
relationship, particularly since you have already played an important role in
providing adequate supplies to our coal based thermal plants. We are now
looking at increased engagement on uranium, gas is going to be the next enabler
for cleaner technology for our power production. In my mind, the last two days
and what I have seen in terms of the work that Australia has done in renewable
energy, I was amazed you started talking about renewables and researching way
back in 1974 at the New South Wales University. It really reflects a deep
understanding of the future, the fact that the university set up a school of
excellence in photovoltaics.
But if you look at the overall perspective, I think across the value
chain in energy, be it coal or gas, be it the renewable energy sector, be it
smart grids or the ability to bring in more efficiency in our energy systems,
the integration of renewables with the power transmission grid, there are many
areas that I believe we can work together with Australia on.
My own experiences of Australia have been very delightful. I first came
here 10 years ago as a tourist and loved every moment of it. In fact, that’s
the last time I drove a car because it was so much fun driving in Australia! Of
course, as I said on an earlier occasion, on a lighter note, I paid a lot of
speeding fines after I went back home, but I paid them all so that they didn’t
stop me at Immigration when I come the next time!
But, I also was the Minister waiting for the Honourable Prime Minister
when he came to India in September of 2014 and found that bubbling enthusiasm
of the Australians reflected in the way we discussed and worked through that
visit. I’m looking forward to a similar engagement with you, Minister, with the
Government of the day, and I have no doubt in my mind that if Australian
innovation and Indian skills and manpower work together we could create a
partnership which can transcend the normal engagement levels and take it to a
much deeper working relationship, partnership, friendship, cooperation. We can
use all sorts of terms, but I think both Australia and India can share common
interests. As we take power – and affordable power – to all our people,
Australia will become a partner in our activities.
FRYDENBERG: Absolutely, and we’ll continue
to play some good cricket together, too!
GOYAL: In fact Australia always
was known for the cricket that it fought for all these years and it’s also in
fact helped us create some of the best relationships!
FRYDENBERG: Absolutely.
GOYAL: But let’s see if we can
play the energy game equally well together.
FRYDENBERG: Well we’re up for that, so
thank you very much and you’re warmly welcomed here in Australia.
GOYAL: Thank you very much.”
ENDS
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