Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday asserted that isolated cases of contamination should not be used to undermine India's biofuel blending programme, saying contamination can occur "in anything".
His remarks come amid growing criticism from the Opposition over the nationwide introduction of ethanol-blended petrol. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced a series of nationwide town halls from Saturday to gather feedback from vehicle owners on issues linked to E20 fuel. Opposition parties have been alleging that ethanol producers are the primary beneficiaries of the programme and claimed the government has failed to provide sufficient data to establish the fuel's safety.
Responding to the controversy, Puri said India's biofuel blending programme was progressing exceptionally well.
"Our biofuel blending programme is doing exceptionally well. Some of you may have heard about E20 and some people trying to create controversy around it. Every day, something like 6 to 7 crore customers go to petrol pumps. If there is contamination, it can take place in anything. Contamination can take place in the food you eat, the air you breathe, kerosene, diesel, or anything else," he said.
The minister said fuel quality checks were carried out extensively across the country and argued that only a handful of contamination cases had been detected despite the massive scale of daily fuel sales.
"In all the testing, they collected samples from 2,000 petrol stations a day. They found four cases out of 107,000 petrol pumps, with 6 to 7 crore people visiting every day. So obviously, someone out there is trying to place some things out of context," he said.
Speaking on the energy sector, Puri said India was expanding its refining capacity even as Europe was witnessing a decline in refining infrastructure.
"We are expanding our refining capacity at a time when Europe is losing 200,000 barrels of refining capacity a day, and many smaller refineries are closing down. If I may say respectfully, the United States has not had a single greenfield refinery, which means a new refinery, built in the last 50 years," he said.
The minister also said India had strengthened its energy security by diversifying supplies, building resilient infrastructure, adopting technological innovation and developing alternative fuels.
"For whatever reason, for decades, we have looked at energy security largely through the prism of access to hydrocarbons. Today... we have been able to largely diversify our supplies. We have built resilient infrastructure. We have trusted partnerships, technological innovation, and reserves... We have alternative fuels, and above all, we have the ability to protect our citizens from external shocks," he said.
Puri further noted that India, now the world's third-largest energy consumer, had maintained uninterrupted fuel supplies even during disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
"When the crisis took place in the Strait of Hormuz... I can say with a degree of confidence that not one station went dry, not one," he said.
