XP100 Officially Confirmed By IOCL To Have No Ethanol
The 20 percent ethanol-blended petrol (E20) has caused a huge controversy in India. People have been complaining about fuel efficiency drops and other issues with the fuel system. As a result of this, many people want to know if they can get petrol without ethanol. To help such people, recently a man filed a Right to Information (RTI) to find out which Indian Oil Corporation's petrol blend does not have any ethanol. The company then replied to this request, and here is the answer.
Only XP100 has 0 percent ethanol
The reply to the RTI on Indian Oil Corporation's fuels with ethanol has been shared on X by FI InvestIndia on their page. In the image, the reply to a few questions on the fuel sold by IOC can be read. These questions included: percentage of ethanol in normal petrol, and percentage of ethanol in XP95 fuel.
Both of these questions were given the same answer, which stated, “Oil marketing companies are blending up to 20% ethanol in Motor Spirits (MS) and XP95 pan India, depending on the availability of ethanol at supply locations.” Following this, the third question asked about the percentage of ethanol in XP99/100 fuels.
To this, the Indian Oil Corporation replied that XP100 petrol does not have ethanol blending, and XP99 is not sold in Delhi. Following this, Lakshit Gaur, who filed this RTI, asked about the outlets in Delhi where non-ethanol-blended fuel is still sold. In reply, the company listed 10 different fuel stations across Delhi which provide XP100 non-ethanol-blended fuel.
Minister of Petroleum asked about pricing of fuel in India
The person who shared this tweet tagged the official X handle of Hardeep Singh Puri, who is the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas. He was asked the question: if XP95 is blended with ethanol, then why is the public paying a premium for XP95? The person stated, “Ideally, shouldn't pure E0 petrol be cheaper than ethanol-blended fuels?”
Netizens’ reactions
A number of netizens in the comments section of this post highlighted, “Ethanol blending was pitched as a way to cut import bills & emissions, not make fuel more expensive. If E20 (ethanol mix) is costing more than E0 (pure petrol), then either taxation, pricing formula, or cross-subsidy logic needs explaining. Why are we paying a premium for dilution?”
Meanwhile, another user wrote, "Premium for blending ethanol is ok as long as petrol prices stay ~ Rs. 100/liter. Had we depended on crude oil from sources other than Russia, when INR @ 88 to $, the situation would have been much worse. The savings generated are being used for GST compensation & nation bldg.”
Pricing and other E0 fuel
If you are planning to add XP100 E0 fuel from Indian Oil Corporation, then prepare to pay a premium of Rs. 180 per litre. As for the other E0 petrol that you can buy — it is HP Power 100. The average price of HP Power 100 across the country is Rs. 160 per litre. Recently, a YouTuber conducted an experiment which showed that only XP100 and HP Power 100 are the fuels with 0 percent ethanol in India.