Indonesia Plans Increase in Palm Oil-based Biodiesel In 2025
JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, is checking fuel with a view to increasing to 40% from 35% the share of palm-oil mixed into biodiesel next year, the energy ministry said.
If implemented, the B40 mandate could increase biodiesel usage to approximately 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry said, from 13 million KL estimated to be consumed in 2024.
"We hope the trials might be completed in December, so that complete application of B40 might be performed in 2025," energy ministry senior main Eniya Listiani Dewi said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) stated the industry had the capacity to meet B40 demand, with installed capacity expected to rise to 20 million KL each year next year from 18 million KL now.
"However we will need more raw products to satisfy B40 demand," Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI told Reuters on Wednesday.
The biodiesel industry would require 13.9 million metric lots of unrefined palm oil to produce 16 million KL biodiesel next year, from the estimated 11 million lots required this year, he included.
Indonesia's biggest palm oil association GAPKI stated a decline in exports indicated there would be adequate basic materials to supply the B40 mandate for now.
But the industry would need to assess "which one would be more important", GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono said, describing the possibility a boost in exports would make supplying the domestic market less .
Indonesia's palm oil output is estimated to reach 54.4 million tons in 2024, a 2.26% boost from in 2015, while exports are anticipated to decrease by 2.47% to 29.5 million tons as domestic usage increased, driven by biodieselmandate.
The ministry had actually evaluated the biodiesel, blended with 40% of palm oil, on a train for the very first time earlier this week, while planning to test the B40 mix on agriculture machinery, power plants and in the shipping market, it said. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina and Dewi Kurniawati; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by John Mair, Savio D'Souza and Barbara Lewis)
