India BPCL JV to invest $480mln in biodiesel-paper

NEW DELHI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A joint venture of India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) (BPCL.BO) will invest 22 billion rupees ($480 million) to produce biodiesel in about four years, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Bharat Renewable Energy Ltd, in which two other firms also own stakes, will initially grow jatropha plants on one million hectares of wasteland in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to produce biodiesel, BPCL Chairman Ashok Sinha told the paper.

The government on Sept. 11 set an ambitious 20 percent target for biofuel use within a decade. [ID:nDEL67394]

India has already asked oil firms to mix ethanol with petrol to 5 percent of volume almost nationwide. It aims to double that to 10 percent from October, when the new sugarcane-crushing season begins.

State-run refiner BPCL is also considering similar projects in other parts of the country, Sinha told the newspaper. ($1=45.8 rupees) (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)