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Indonesia faces uphill battle to achieve B50 biofuel goal
Indonesia produced 51.1 million tons of CPO last year, of which 34.7 million tons was exported, with 13.5 million tons consumed domestically and the remainder stored for future use.
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Former energy and mineral resources minister Ignasius Jonan (second right) fills a car with 30 percent biodiesel (B30) fuel during the launch of a road test for palm oil-based biofuel in June. (Antara/-)
T
he government has reaffirmed its commitment to implement a 50 percent-blended biodiesel (B50) requirement but has acknowledged that under current oil production projections, it will difficult to achieve within the next five years.
“We will mandate the use of B30 starting Jan. 1 [2020] and will move up to B40 by the end of next year [...] but it appears we will have to stop at B50 because supplies are insufficient,” Coordinating Maritime and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation No. 12/2015 introduced a B15 requirement in 2015 and stipulated that a B30 requirement would be introduced in 2020.
While the regulation does not require the country to go beyond B30, Luhut said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo wanted to see the biodiesel requirement increased in line with the country’s crude palm oil (CPO) production.
The coordinating minister pointed to the Agriculture Ministry’s palm oil replanting program, which has provided higher-yield palm oil saplings to plantations around the country since October 2017, as the key to increasing production.
According to Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) data, Indonesia produced 51.1 million tons of CPO last year, of which 34.7 million tons was exported, with 13.5 million tons consumed domestically and the remainder stored for future use.
Even though domestic CPO production is sufficient for a B50 program, Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) executive director Fabby Tumiwa told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that domestic supplies were dependent on global prices.
