Amid ongoing controversy regarding excess ethanol mixing in E20 petrol, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has added fuel to fire by posting and then deleting photos of their own staff testing the ethanol content.

The photos were posted on X by BPCL Mysore, as part of their counter-campaign against the claims put forward by the Karnataka Civil Supplies Minister Rizwan Arshad that the fuel sold in pumps in Karnataka in the name of E20 petrol, found to have up to 31 percent ethanol, based on the state government’s own checking mechanisms.

The claims by the Karnataka minister were further backed by the Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and later Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi. The Congress party has kicked off a national campaign on this issue.

Meanwhile, the oil marketing companies, including BPCL are running campaigns to counter the allegations, claiming that the E20 petrol they sell only has 20 percent mixing.

Dubbed “Let the facts speak,” with the hashtag “Myth vs Facts,” the BPCL campaign shows videos and photos from various petrol pumps, with customers giving positive reviews to the petrol they fill, and BPCL employees themselves testing the ethanol percentage.

Multiple photos of the campaign show BPCL officers testing the fuel percentage in beakers, while the photos are captured away from the test tubes, in such a way that the readings are not clear, while the posts claims tests have found 19-20 percent ethanol were only found in the tests.

On taking a closer look at the test tubes and tumblers shown in their own photos in which readings are visible, the readings showed the ethanol content seems to exceed the claimed 20 percent.

Netizens have said that their own images show that there is ethanol mixing well above the prescribed levels.


After posts went viral and the campaign backfired, the BPCL Mysore have deleted some of their posts of this campaign.


Meanwhile, netizens also claim that the non petrol readings shown in the images include water also, which is mixed with petrol, to separate ethanol from the E20 petrol blend, so it cannot be assumed that the higher volume of non-petrol liquid in the test tube is entirely ethanol.

"In right image, petrol touching 128 ml. Ethanol touching 48 ml. So 48/128*100 = 37.5% Trust mathematics. Thank you for sharing facts. This is National Fraud !," one reacted to the above post.

In reply to this, another netizen have raised a counter argument to the assumption. He said, "Phase segregation test: When water-and-fuel mixture is combined & agitated, ethanol present in the gasoline will bond with the water and separate out from the petrol(bottom clear portion) In above img, looks like 25ml of H2O is added to 1L of E20 for test. 20+25+80=125."

The BPCL has not put out how the tests were done nor have explained the methodology of testing, and one netizen has commented it was poor communication strategy, citing the lack of explanation and the reason to which netizens reach conclusions that do not serve the purpose of the campaign the oil marketing company is running.

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