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 stated.

If executed, the B40 mandate might increase biodiesel intake to as much as 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry stated, from 13 million KL estimated to be consumed in 2024.

“We hope the trials could be ended up in December, so that complete application of B40 could be carried out in 2025,” energy ministry senior official Eniya Listiani Dewi stated in a declaration on Tuesday.

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

“However we will need more raw products to fulfill B40 need,” Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI told Reuters on Wednesday.

The biodiesel market would need 13.9 million metric lots of unrefined palm oil to produce 16 million KL biodiesel next year, from the approximated 11 million heaps needed this year, he included.

Indonesia’s most significant palm oil association GAPKI said a decrease in there would suffice basic materials to provide the B40 required in the meantime.

But the industry would require to assess “which one would be better”, GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono stated, describing the possibility an increase in exports would make providing the domestic market less practical.

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

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 preparing to check 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)