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 combined into biodiesel next year, the energy ministry said.
If executed, the B40 mandate could increase biodiesel intake to approximately 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry stated, from 13 million KL approximated to be consumed in 2024.
"We hope the trials might be finished in December, so that full application of B40 could be performed in 2025," energy ministry senior main Eniya Listiani Dewi stated in a statement on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) said the market had the capability to meet B40 need, with set up capability expected to increase to 20 million KL yearly next year from 18 million KL now.
"However we will need more raw products to satisfy B40 need," Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI told Reuters on Wednesday.
The biodiesel market would need 13.9 million metric lots of crude palm oil to produce 16 million KL biodiesel next year, from the estimated 11 million tons needed this year, he added.
Indonesia's most significant palm oil association GAPKI said a decrease in there would be sufficient basic materials to provide the B40 mandate for now.
But the industry would require to assess "which one would be more valuable", GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono said, referring to the possibility an increase in exports would make supplying the domestic market less feasible.
Indonesia's palm oil output is estimated to reach 54.4 million lots in 2024, a 2.26% increase from in 2015, while exports are anticipated to decrease by 2.47% to 29.5 million heaps as domestic intake rose, driven by biodiesel required.
The ministry had actually evaluated the biodiesel, combined with 40% of palm oil, on a train for the very first time previously today, while planning to test the B40 mix on farming equipment, 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)