Green hydrogen prices are around $3.50 or lower and are expected to fall below $3 per kilogram with expanded tenders.
If prices reach $2.5 per kilogram, it could lead to a massive shift in energy imports worth $150 million, as green hydrogen becomes a more affordable and cleaner option.
Hardeep Singh Puri highlighted government efforts in biofuels, including the Numaligarh ethanol refinery in Assam using bamboo, and the Panipat refinery producing ethanol from agricultural waste.
India is the fourth-largest oil refiner, with plans to expand capacity from 260–270 million metric tonnes per annum to 320 million metric tonnes.
Green hydrogen prices, currently around $3.50 or lower, are expected to drop below $3 as the government expands its tenders, Union Minister for Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.
Speaking at ENRich 2025 organised by KPMG, Puri said he was confident that with the scaling up of these tenders, prices would fall below $3 per kilogram. He added that once the price reaches $2.5 per kilogram, it could trigger a major shift away from current energy imports worth $150 million, as green hydrogen—which produces only water vapour—becomes a more viable alternative.
Puri also highlighted the government’s efforts in promoting biofuels, noting that the Prime Minister of India recently inaugurated the first bio-ethanol refinery in Numaligarh, Assam, which will produce ethanol from bamboo as part of second-generation ethanol initiatives.
He pointed out that a few years ago, the Panipat refinery operated by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) was inaugurated to produce ethanol from agricultural waste, while the Numaligarh refinery, run by Oil India Limited, is focused on bamboo-based ethanol. Several other advancements in this sector are also underway, he added.
Additionally, Puri said India is already the fourth-largest refiner in the world, with a current refining capacity of around 260–270 million metric tonnes per annum, and that plans are in place to expand this capacity to 320 million metric tonnes in the near future.
