Ministry Reiterates E20 Fuel Meets Standards After Karnataka Controversy

New Delhi, November 9 – The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas reaffirmed that Karnataka’s retail gasoline complies with the national E20 standards, following a spate of accusations that some stations were dispensing fuel with unusually high ethanol ratios.

According to the Ministry’s statement, the comprehensive quality‑monitoring exercise carried out earlier this month inspected 56 samples from various outlets across the state. All specimens satisfied the E20 criteria, showing ethanol concentrations ranging from 19 to 20 percent, well within the legal limit.

The Ministry highlighted that the blended gasoline supplied by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), BPCL and HPCL adheres to Indian Standard IS 17021, the benchmark for ethanol‑blended motor gasoline set by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Furthermore, the Ministry cited the 2005 Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply, Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order and the 2024 Marketing Discipline Guidelines, which together prescribe a rigorous workflow for sample collection, preservation, laboratory analysis, and result disclosure.

A review of the nation‑wide surveillance programme revealed that out of 893 E20 samples taken from 27 states and union territories, ethanol content consistently fell between 19 and 21 percent. The Ministry therefore dismissed the earlier claim of 26‑31 percent ethanol presence as unsubstantiated, noting that no procedural or technical breach was detected during the inspections.