On 7 August 2026, BPCL, IndianOil and HPCL issued a joint press release in response to claims about moisture and chloride in E20 petrol. It reports results from additional testing across refineries, distilleries, terminals and retail outlets. The figures below are the companies’ reported results; they do not determine whether a particular car is E20-compatible, which still depends on the manufacturer’s guidance for that exact model and build date.
What the release tested
The oil marketing companies describe an additional nationwide testing programme spanning the E20 supply chain. Their release says the programme did not validate recent claims of chloride at 500 ppm or moisture in the fuel tested.
That is the scope of this release: the results of the sampling reported by the companies. It is not a claim that a fuel-quality deviation can never occur, and it is separate from the question of whether a particular vehicle was designed or cleared for E20.
What was found before fuel reached the pump
More than 100 additional randomly selected petrol samples from refineries were reported at or below 1 ppm chloride. A joint OMC and Centre for High Technology task force also checked ethanol from 80 distilleries over the preceding 10 days; every sample was reported below 3 ppm.
More than 80 samples collected from OMC terminals across India were reported below 3 ppm. These figures cover different stages of the supply chain, rather than treating one downstream sample as proof of every upstream stage.
What the retail surveillance found, and had not yet finished
The intensified retail programme covered more than 1,000 samples. By the date of the release, 160 test reports had been analysed and those chloride results were in the 0–3 ppm range. The remaining reports were not presented as completed results in this document.
The surveillance also found four isolated instances of elevated chloride. The companies say supplies were suspended immediately, followed by root-cause analysis and corrective measures before restoration. The release does not identify those outlets or publish the completed root-cause findings.
What the water checks showed at that point
The release says about 90,000 retail outlets had begun mandatory inspection of underground storage tanks 8–12 times each day and that the checks had revealed no water ingress so far. The words “so far” matter: this is a dated monitoring result, not a permanent guarantee about every future delivery or outlet.
What a driver should do with this information
Use these results to understand the fuel-quality testing record. Use your owner’s manual or manufacturer guidance to answer the separate compatibility question for your car.
If a vehicle develops a symptom after refuelling, keep the receipt and note the outlet, pump and time. Ask the oil company and the vehicle service centre to investigate the fuel and the vehicle; a documented test is stronger evidence than timing alone.