Indonesia Plans Increase in Palm Oil-based Biodiesel In 2025

JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) – Indonesia, the world’s greatest palm oil manufacturer, 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 required might increase biodiesel intake to approximately 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry stated, from 13 million KL approximated to be in 2024.

“We hope the trials could be finished in December, so that full execution of B40 could be brought out in 2025,” energy ministry senior official Eniya Listiani Dewi stated in a declaration on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) said the industry had the capability to fulfill B40 need, with installed capability anticipated to increase to 20 million KL yearly next year from 18 million KL now.

“However we will need more basic materials to meet B40 demand,” Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI informed Reuters on Wednesday.

The biodiesel market would require 13.9 million metric lots of crude palm oil to produce 16 million KL biodiesel next year, from the estimated 11 million lots required this year, he included.

Indonesia’s greatest palm oil association GAPKI stated a decline in exports indicated there would be enough raw products to supply the B40 required in the meantime.

But the industry would need to evaluate “which one would be more important”, GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono stated, referring to the possibility a boost in exports would make supplying the domestic market less feasible.

Indonesia’s palm oil output is approximated to reach 54.4 million lots in 2024, a 2.26% boost from in 2015, while exports are expected to decrease by 2.47% to 29.5 million lots as domestic intake rose, driven by biodiesel mandate.

The ministry had actually checked the biodiesel, blended with 40% of palm oil, on a train for the first time previously today, while planning to test the B40 mix on farming 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)