Indian Oil Readies Green Jet Fuel Plant, 30 GW Renewable Capacity In Net-Zero Push

As part of its Rs 1.5 lakh crore planned investments into sustainability and petrochemicals business in Paradip, the refiner will start the production of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, from its Chennai facility by June-July this year, AS Sahney, chairman and managing director of Indian Oil told NDTV Profit in an interview.

IOCL sees this venture as a lucrative business opportunity not only from the company's perspective but also to cater to India's burgeoning demand for SAF.

As part of its Rs 1.5 lakh crore planned investments into sustainability and petrochemicals business in Paradip, the refiner will start the production of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, from its Chennai facility by June-July this year, AS Sahney, chairman and managing director of Indian Oil told NDTV Profit in an interview.

IOCL sees this venture as a lucrative business opportunity not only from the company's perspective but also to cater to India's burgeoning demand for SAF.

"We will meet India's requirement of 5% of SAF blending target with aviation turbine fuel by 2030 from the Chennai, Panipat and few other plants that will be set up in coming years. Total production will be around 300KTA, or 0.3 million tonnes, per annum by 2030 by IOCL," Sahney said.

India has targeted to achieve 1% SAF blending by 2027, 2% by 2028 and 5% by 2030.

As another important sustainability goal the company has set an ambitious renewable energy — wind and solar — target for 2030.

"To meet our sustainability goals we want to achieve 30 GW renewable energy target by 2030. We know it's a tall and tough task, but we are confident of achieving it," Sahney said.

These strategic moves align with IOCL's broader vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2046.

To achieve this ambitious net-zero target, IOCL has earmarked a staggering investment of Rs 1.5 lakh crore over the next five years.

This outlay will be directed towards setting up a Rs 61,000 crore petrochemicals complex in Paradip in Odisha, over 30 compressed biogas plants to showcase the profitability of the venture to the entrepreneurs, ethanol and SAF capacity, and battery manufacturing with joint venture partners, Sahney said.

Earlier the IOCL board had granted Stage-1 approval for the establishment of the Paradip petrochemical complex in Odisha. This mega-project will be IOCL's single largest investment at a location, underscoring the company's commitment to sustainable growth and development.

IOCL had already undertaken a Rs 1 lakh crore investment for expansion of refinery capacity by 25% by FY27. The refinery capacity will increase to 110 million tonnes per annum from 80 MTPA at present, Sahney said.