Indonesia Plans Increase in Palm Oil-based Biodiesel In 2025
JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia, the world's most significant palm oil producer, is testing 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 executed, the B40 mandate might increase biodiesel usage to as much as 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 ended up 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 industry had the capability to satisfy B40 need, with set up capability expected to rise to 20 million KL annually next year from 18 million KL now.
"However we will require more raw products to meet B40 demand," Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI informed 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 lots needed this year, he included.
Indonesia's biggest palm oil association GAPKI said a decrease in exports indicated there would be sufficient basic materials to supply the B40 for now.
But the market would need to examine "which one would be more important", GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono stated, describing the possibility a boost in exports would make providing the domestic market less practical.
Indonesia's palm oil output is estimated to reach 54.4 million heaps in 2024, a 2.26% boost from last year, while exports are anticipated to decline by 2.47% to 29.5 million tons as domestic usage rose, driven by biodiesel required.
The ministry had actually checked the biodiesel, mixed 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 equipment, 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)