SATAT, CBO and GOBARdhan — how offtake actually works

SATAT — Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation — was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on 1 October 2018. Oil and gas marketing companies invite expressions of interest to procure CBG. The original ambition was on the order of 5,000 plants.

As of 31 July 2026, figures compiled on the GOBARdhan portal and reported to Lok Sabha put functional CBG plants at 217, with aggregate production capacity of about 1,773 tonnes per day. Policy created a market. It did not fill it.

A CBG blending obligation applies in the CNG transport and PNG domestic segments, rising toward 5 percent from FY 2028–29. GOBARdhan has been unified as a national bioenergy scheme with a large announced outlay. None of that is a take-or-pay contract for an individual plant. IOCL’s published SATAT FAQ states there is no take-or-pay; offtake follows actual market sale.

Bankable projects treat offtake as a workstream: who buys, at what specification, through which logistics, and what happens when the local retail network is slow. Saimona will not describe SATAT as guaranteed offtake.