The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken note of the press release issued by the Department of Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Legal Metrology, Government of Karnataka, claiming that petrol sold at certain retail outlets in the state contains between 26 per cent and 31 per cent ethanol.In this regard, the three public sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) — Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) — have clarified that the claims, as reported, are not supported by testing conducted in accordance with the prescribed statutory and technical procedures.E20 petrol, supplied by the three OMCs across the country, including Karnataka, conforms to IS 17021, the Bureau of Indian Standards specification for ethanol-blended motor gasoline.They have also raised concerns regarding the sampling procedure and testing methodology adopted for the October 2026 exercise.The Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply, Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 2005, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, read with the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) 2024, prescribes a defined procedure for sampling, retention, testing and communication of results.The prescribed procedure requires six one-litre samples to be drawn, with two samples handed over to the dealer against acknowledgement, two retained by the oil company or department, and two sent to a laboratory specified under Schedule III of the Control Order or notified in the Official Gazette.The sample labels are required to be jointly signed, and the test results communicated to the dealer and the oil company within the prescribed timeframe.While samples drawn during the September 2026 exercise were routed through the state-level coordinator to designated OMC laboratories and tested for the quality parameters requested under the MDG 2024, the subsequent exercise in October reportedly involved samples drawn without the participation of OMC representatives.The OMCs have also not received the corresponding retention samples, complete outlet-wise details or laboratory reports, despite seeking these through the State Level Coordinator.The OMCs have further stated that the reported findings rely on certificates issued by a third-party laboratory rather than testing conducted at a laboratory specified under the Control Order. The certificates do not provide the complete technical details necessary to independently verify the reported ethanol content.The absence of counterpart samples and the prescribed documentation have also denied the OMCs and concerned dealers an opportunity to seek verification or retesting.The Centre for High Technology (CHT), under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has been continuously monitoring ethanol blending and fuel quality across OMC retail outlets.As part of the OMC/CHT Quality Coordination Cell (QCC) exercise, 893 E20 samples drawn from IOCL (330), BPCL (280) and HPCL (283) depots and retail outlets across 27 States and Union Territories have been tested for ethanol content as per IS 17021, Annex C, at refinery and OMC quality-control laboratories. All 893 samples were found within the prescribed ethanol content range of 19-21 per cent.