India Calls for Bigger Biofuel Push as Oil Prices Soar

An adviser to India’s prime minister has called for a stepped-up national push to produce and consume biofuels as a way to strengthen the country’s energy security amid surging crude prices and regional instability. At the India Sugar and Bio-Energy Conference, Tarun Kapoor urged policymakers and industry to expand markets for ethanol, compressed biogas and other bio-based fuels and to make fuller use of existing production capacity.

The appeal comes as India faces sharply higher import costs. The country’s average crude import price climbed above $100 per barrel recently, and the international Brent benchmark topped $100 for the first time since July, according to the report. Reduced oil flows from the Middle East and elevated shipping risks through the Strait of Hormuz have driven up the value of import bills, with India paying about 60% more for crude in the April–June quarter year-on-year and a July import bill 41% higher than the same month last year.

New fuel policies are already under way: in June India rolled out a fuel blend containing 85% ethanol as part of a flex-fuel mobility programme designed to curb reliance on imported oil. The government has argued that flex-fuel vehicles can lower crude imports, boost rural earnings through increased ethanol demand, and support lower-carbon mobility, a position reiterated by the petroleum minister when the policy was announced.

Kapoor and other officials framed the biofuel expansion as both an economic and strategic response to the current market environment. They recommended diversifying applications across transport, industry and power to maximize returns from agricultural and organic resources, while tapping capacity built up by sugar and bio-energy sectors. The proposal underscores a broader government push to substitute domestically producible fuels for costly imported crude as international volatility persists.