New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a petition on Wednesday filed by an oil marketing company (OMC), which has raised concerns that reopening ethanol allocation for the 2025–26 supply year could affect India’s target of achieving 20% ethanol blending in petrol.
The case follows a Karnataka High Court direction asking OMCs to consider increasing ethanol allocation to VINP Distilleries and Sugars.
Seeking an urgent hearing, Attorney General R Venkataramani appeared before a bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Sheel Nagu on behalf of Bharat Petroleum and argued that ethanol supply contracts for the current cycle had already been completed in October 2025, The Times of India reported.
According to the submission, the allocation process was finalised on October 17, 2025, with supply orders issued to 378 suppliers covering a total of 1,050 crore litres of ethanol. Of this quantity, approximately 680 crore litres had already been delivered by June 18.
The OMC argued that any increase in allocation for a single supplier could lead to similar demands from other suppliers, potentially resulting in large-scale litigation and disruption to the ethanol supply chain.
Bharat Petroleum, which acts as the industry coordinator for the Ethanol Blended Petrol programme supporting the 20% blending goal, stated that cumulative supply offers of 1,759 crore litres were received under the tender process. Procurement allocations were eventually made for about 1,048 crore litres.
Opposing VINP Distilleries and Sugars’ request to increase supply from the allocated 3.92 crore litres to 9.9 crore litres, the company argued that installed production capacity alone does not provide an automatic entitlement to higher ethanol allocation.
The petition further stated that procurement quantities had been distributed among suppliers across multiple states without discriminatory treatment.
