Indonesia Plans Increase in Palm Oil-based Biodiesel In 2025

JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) – Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil manufacturer, is checking fuel with a view to increasing to 40% from 35% the share of palm-oil blended into biodiesel next year, the energy ministry stated.

If carried out, the B40 mandate might increase biodiesel intake to up to 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry stated, 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 carried out in 2025,” energy ministry senior main Eniya Listiani Dewi said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) said the market had the capacity to fulfill B40 need, with set up capacity anticipated to to 20 million KL each year next year from 18 million KL now.

„However we will require more basic materials to satisfy B40 need,” Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI informed 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 approximated 11 million lots required this year, he added.

Indonesia’s biggest palm oil association GAPKI said a decrease in exports suggested there would suffice basic materials to provide the B40 required for now.

But the industry would need to assess „which one would be better”, GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono stated, referring to the possibility an increase in exports would make supplying the domestic market less practical.

Indonesia’s palm oil output is approximated to reach 54.4 million loads in 2024, a 2.26% increase from in 2015, while exports are anticipated to decrease by 2.47% to 29.5 million lots as domestic usage rose, driven by biodiesel required.

The ministry had tested the biodiesel, combined with 40% of palm oil, on a train for the first time earlier today, while planning to check the B40 mix on agriculture machinery, power plants and in the shipping industry, it said. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina and Dewi Kurniawati; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by John Mair, Savio D’Souza and Barbara Lewis)