India to expand fuel refining by 80%

New Delhi: Amid push for electric vehicles, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said India will continue to rely on petrol and diesel for running automobiles and will need to expand its oil refining capacity by 80 per cent to meet the demand for the fuel in near future.

"EV is a priority but the incremental requirement of fuel will have to be met through a combination of (ultra-clean) BS-VI grade petrol and diesel, CNG and biofuels alongside EVs," he said at the Energy Horizon-2019 conference here.

The world's third-largest energy consumer would need a combination of cleaner diesel and petrol, compressed natural gas (CNG), biofuels and electric vehicles (EVs) for meeting its transportation needs, he said.

"Development of EV infrastructure and popularising through policy support would happen, at the same time a road map has to be provided in terms of the role of all other transportation solutions," he said.

While the country has sufficient capacity to refine crude oil and convert it into fuel such as petrol and diesel, it will need to raise it to meet the future requirement.

"In India, we have a current domestic refining capacity of 250 million tonne per annum.

Recent studies have pointed out that even with an aggressive EV rollout plan, India would need 450 million tonne of refining capacity (by 2040)," he said.

"Unless we pay attention to this demand growth, in another few years, we will have to start importing refined products along with crude," he said.