The government on Saturday rolled out a new policy for blending compressed bio-gas in CNG and PNG. It will be on a voluntary basis till the financial year 2024-25 and will be mandatory thereafter.
“CBG Blending Obligation (CBO) will promote production and consumption of Compressed Bio-Gas in the country,” oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. The CBG Blending Operation shall be kept as 1%, 3%, and 4% of total CNG and PNG consumption for FY26, FY27, and FY28 respectively, as per the government. From the financial year 2028-29, however, the CBO will be 5%. “A Central Repository Body (CRB) shall monitor and implement the blending mandate based on the operational guidelines approved by the oil minister,” the government said.
The government aims to substitute imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) with CBG introduction and thus save Forex outgo.
“It will encourage investment of around `37,500 crores and facilitate the establishment of 750 CBG projects by 2028-29,” Puri said highlighting that the key objective of CBO is to stimulate demand for compressed bio-gas.It is also aiming to make maize a prominent feedstock in the coming years and promote the production of ethanol from maize.
To achieve the same, the government said that it has initiated work in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Department of Food and Public Distribution to develop high starch-yielding varieties of maize and faster registration of new seed varieties with high starch.
Further, the government has also set Sustainable Aviation Fuel indicative blending percentage targets for plants coming up in the country in order to promote the use of biofuels in the country.
It has approved a 1% SAF indicative blending target in 2027 and a 2% SAF target in 2028 which will be implemented initially for international flights only.
The above targets were set based on the comments received from the stakeholders, like the ministry of civil aviation, Niti Aayog, and oil marketing companies among others.