Aemetis’ Universal Biofuels India subsidiary has been awarded a biodiesel supply contract with the three India government-owned oil marketing companies (OMC) in a public tender process.

The contract provides for ongoing deliveries of biodiesel to a variety of blending locations in an aggregate amount of more than $23 million during 2019 and is tied to the mining sector, Aemetis said. Biodiesel shipments are scheduled to begin this month.

The company said: “The total diesel market in India is approximately 25 billion gallons per year with 80% imported, of which less than 250 million gallons per year of biodiesel is currently blended.

“The 2018 National Biofuels Policy stated a plan to increase biodiesel blending to 5% of the diesel market, equal to more than 1.2 billion gallons per year. The OMCs in India supply about 70% of the fuel consumed in India, and the diesel fuel market has been growing at a rate of more than 5% per year.”

Eric McAfee, Chairman and CEO of Aemetis, said: “With the recent completion of our plant pre-treatment unit and expansion to 50 million gallons of capacity per year from low cost, high free fatty acid feedstock, the Aemetis team in India is executing on a rapid increase in production and revenues this year by broadening our customers to include government, logistics, mining, retail fuel stations and other sectors.

“As the only US company producing biofuels in India, Aemetis built and has now fully upgraded our India biodiesel and refined glycerin plant to use low cost feedstocks as a leader in this rapidly expanding market.”