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Our Bureau

Willing to pay higher price for extra LNG from Iran

New Delhi , Jan. 16

The Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, today said that the Government plans to enhance the ethanol-blended petrol programme to 10 per cent blend shortly from the present 5 per cent.

In his inaugural address at Petrotech-2007 here, the Minister said measures have been taken to make auto fuels environment-friendly and the introduction of ethanol-blended petrol will also put more income in the hands of farmers.

``This year we will implement a five per cent ethanol blend by procuring an estimated 550 million litres of ethanol. We plan to enhance this programme to 10 per cent blend shortly,'' he said.

The 5 per cent blend has already been introduced in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu (except Chennai), Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (partial), Goa, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi.

Outlining the multi-pronged strategy put in place by the Government, he said faster exploration of domestic sedimentary basins to enhance indigenous production of oil and gas, improvement in quality of fuels produced by refineries in conformity with the established international emission norms, acquisition of equity oil and gas abroad to supplement domestic production, development and commercialisation of use of alternative fuels, and conservation of hydrocarbons were some of the salient features of the strategy.

Asked about the liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Iran, Mr Deora said India was willing to pay a higher price for extra quantities of LNG from Iran only if Tehran honours an existing contract to supply five million tonnes per annum of LNG from 2010 at the contracted price.

A trilateral official meeting is scheduled in Tehran on January 20-21 to discuss the pipeline and pricing of gas to be supplied to India and Pakistan through the proposed $7-billion project.

Related Stories:
Ethanol-petrol programme yet to take off nationally
Ethanol blended petrol to be priced at Rs 21.5/litre
Ethanol blended petrol from Nov. 1

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