New Delhi, Nov. 10 -- Ethanol producers have offered 19.32 billion litres against the oil marketing companies' (OMCs) tender requirement of 11 billion litres for the 2026-27 supply year, with maize-based ethanol accounting for nearly 60% of the total offers. The quantity offered is close to India's officially confirmed distillation capacity of 19.5 billion litres, indicating that almost the entire capacity has been offered for ethanol production.

The scale of the offers comes even as the OMCs are estimated to require another 1 billion litres (over and above the 11 billion litres already asked for) to meet the E20 petrol-blending mandate, while private-sector oil companies are expected to require 1.2 billion litres. Other end-use industri...