Indian Oil to consolidate green assets under 1 umbrella for powering India’s energy transition

During the first Indian Oil Green Energy Summit held March 15, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., the country’s top refiner and fuel retailer, shared a wide array of sustainability endeavors poised to catalyze India’s green-energy transition.

The company also underscored its intent to consolidate all its existing green assets under one umbrella and rapidly expand its footprint across sustainable-energy avenues like biofuels, renewables, green hydrogen, carbon offsets and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

“While Indian Oil is committed to energizing India’s exponentially rising energy needs, we are also determined to be the flagbearer of India’s green-energy transition,” said S.M. Vaidya, chairman of Indian Oil. “We are thus scaling up our green endeavors with a definitive focus, and going forward we will consolidate our green assets under one umbrella for better synergy. Our ambitious green roadmap also involves forging effective collaborations to nurture commercial-scale green businesses. We shall provide opportunities to investors and technology providers across the globe to partner in our journey.”

Vaidya shared that Indian Oil aims to build a portfolio including 3 gigawatts of renewable energy and 600,000 metric tons of biofuels by 2025; 35 gigawatts of renewable energy, 4 million metric tons of biofuels and 1 million metric tons of biogas by 2030; and 200 gigawatts of renewable energy, 7 million metric tons of biofuels and 9 million metric tons of biogas by 2050.

“Indian Oil’s best-in-class ability on project execution will be pivotal in providing accessible, low-cost energy to every Indian throughout our country,” he said.

Expanding renewable energy footprint

Indian Oil’s renewable energy portfolio currently stands at 239 megawatts, which is being expanded through new wind, solar, hydel and pumped hydro projects. It is also collaborating with NTPC to augment its renewable energy capacity by around 2.8 gigawatts. There is also greening of the supply chain through solarizing 20,705 retail outlets with an installed capacity of 121 megawatts. Initiatives in EVs are being intensified by setting up 4,700 charging stations and 66 battery-swapping stations. A collaboration has been entered with Phinergy, an Israeli start-up company specializing in hybrid lithium-ion and aluminum-air battery systems, to form IOC Phinergy Pte Ltd. Various other battery chemistries are also being explored.

Leading India’s green-hydrogen revolution

Indian Oil has also firmly etched its presence in the nascent green-hydrogen ecosystem of the country. The company has a firmed-up collaboration with ReNew Power Pte Ltd. (ReNew) and Larson & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) for green-hydrogen business. A 7 kilo tonnes per annum green-hydrogen capacity is under development at the Panipat Refinery. A demonstration facility for hydrogen dispensing at Gujarat Refinery has been installed using the hydrogen from the refinery unit. Indian Oil’s R&D Center is also fully oriented towards developing low-carbon technologies and products.

Foraying into biofuels, expanding green offerings

Indian Oil has already made deep forays into the biofuel space. Various biofuels projects and initiatives in ethanol, biodiesel, compressed biogas (CBG), organic manure, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and waste to energy are being implemented. Indian Oil has set up its paddy straw-based second-generation ethanol plant and refinery off-gas-based third-generation ethanol plants at Panipat. Indian Oil has commissioned 20 CBG plants under the SATAT initiative. CBG is also being sold by Indian Oil from 41 retail outlets across India under the brand name IndiGreen. Indian Oil has also set up a 100-ton-per-day (TPD) cattle dung to CBG plant in Jaipur, Rajasthan and a 200 TPD mixed waste (paddy straw, press mud, cattle dung) to CBG plant in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. Indian Oil is also expanding its bouquet of greener products with innovative solutions like IndiGreen, XP95, XP 100, Xtragreen, Xtra Tej, SERVO Raftaar, etc.

Leading India’s energy transition

Indian Oil is the leader among Indian corporates in the oil-and-gas sector per the global rankings on transition released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Globally, Indian Oil has been ranked 22nd in the rankings. Indian Oil has also topped oil-and-gas corporates for low-carbon investments as a share of total capex, with Indian Oil’s share of low-carbon investments being 1.8 percent of its total capex per the report. Today, Indian Oil meets 9 percent of the nation’s energy needs and aspires to grow this share to 12 percent by 2030.