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Homegrown fuel: Jokowi kicks off B30 policy
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo symbolically kicked off on Monday the mandatory use of B30 biodiesel - eight days ahead of Jan. 1, when the policy was initially scheduled to go into force.
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (left, in red), state-owned oil and gas holding company Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati (center, wearing yellow veil) and several ministers symbolically kick off the B30 policy at a Pertamina gas station on Jl. MT. Haryono in Jakarta on Monday. (JP/Norman Harsono)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has symbolically kicked off the mandatory use of B30 biodiesel - eight days ahead of Jan. 1, when the policy was initially scheduled to go into force.
“We can say that this B30 policy can save us Rp 63 trillion (US$4.5 billion) in foreign exchange expenditure,” he told reporters and government officials at a gas station in Jakarta on Monday.
The B30 policy, Jokowi said, was meant to increase renewable energy usage as well as to reduce burdensome oil imports — which contribute heavily to Indonesia’s trade deficit — and increase domestic palm oil consumption.
Indonesia, a major palm oil producer, has been struggling to find new palm oil export markets since the European Union began slashing consumption earlier this year over sustainability and environmental concerns.
Indonesia began B30 distribution trials in November, when state-owned oil company Pertamina signed a deal with 10 biofuel producers to supply such fuel to eight depots around the country.
The company will begin selling B30 fuel at all gas stations around the archipelago starting in January.
“I have ordered Pertamina to start B40 by the end of next year. In 2021, we will start B50,” the President added.
