Indian oil companies struggling to get ethanol supplies needed for E5

In India, Bharat Petroleum is scrambling to get the ethanol it needs to comply with the E5 blend that begins June 30. It needs 1.4 billion liters, received offers for 550 million liters, but only bought 110 million liters while it remains in talks with the rest of the offered volumes. It sought to import 820 million liters but only received offers for 737 million liters from five supplies, negotiations for which are still ongoing. The Indian Sugar Mills Association says the problem is that oil companies issued their tenders in January, well after most of the molasses had been accounted for, leaving little to offer for the ethanol blend. It said that if the tenders were properly timed, the mills would have no problem supplying the entire 1.05 billion liters needed by the oil companies.