Three major national Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) - Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have issued the Expression for Interest (EOI) for procurement of Biodiesel made from Used Cooking Oil (UCO). Biodiesel from UCO will initially be procured from 100 cities.

The EOIs are in-line with the government efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imports for oil needs. Reusing UCO, which is produced in huge quantities in the country everyday, is one of the ways the government is trying to fulfil the aim.

The EOI on Biodiesel from UCO provides that the entrepreneurs setting up Biodiesel plants get remunerative price and assurance of complete offtake of production by the Oil companies. The agreement with OMCs will ensure that Rs 51 per litre is paid for Biodiesel for the first year, Rs 52.7 for the second year and Rs 54.5 for the third year. The OMCs will also bear the cost of transportation and GST for the first year.

Commenting on the release of the EOIs, Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan said that the government is working on a four-pronged strategy to bring down import dependency of oil products by 2022 - promoting ethanol, 2-G ethanol, Compressed Bio-Gas and Bio-diesel.

Earlier, it had been reported that global food chain McDonald’s is in the process to reuse its UCO for powering its truck fleet in India.