Defense minister and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto expressed his belief on Thursday that Indonesia had the potential to produce its own environmentally friendly fuel, eliminating the country’s reliance on imports.

Prabowo delivered the statement during the 2023 working meeting of the West Java chapter of the All-Indonesia Village Administration Association (Apdesi) in his capacity as defense minister at C-Tra Arena Sports Hall in Bandung on Thursday.

At least 5,000 village chiefs were present at the event.

The fuel Prabowo was referring to is processed from plants, which he called BBM Hijau (green fuel). Plant-based fuel can accelerate Indonesia’s transition toward net-zero emissions while preventing harm to soil and water, he said.

“We [Indonesia] will be the only country in the world to produce fuel entirely from plants. This green fuel, or green energy, is a healthy and environmentally friendly energy source,” Prabowo said in media statement.

However, Prabowo did not elaborate on the specific steps in converting plants into fuel.

Separately, state-owned electricity firm PT PLN president director Darmawan Prasodjo revealed on Monday that Indonesia’s daily oil demand stood at approximately 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), while domestic oil production only hovered at around 600,000 bpd, as reported by cnbcindonesia.com. This means that 900,000 bpd of fuel needs to come from imports.

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua