Indonesia will implement a 10 percent bioethanol blend this year, President Prabowo Subianto said on Wednesday, with a 50 percent blend targeted within four years. Speaking at the opening of a Cabinet plenary session at Merdeka Palace, he said the country might only reach E10 this year.
Targets and timeline
Prabowo said he hopes to reach a 20 percent blend, E20, in about two years. He said E50 would follow two years after E20 was applied. “Maybe this year we can only reach E10; maybe in two years we hope to reach E20,” he said.
Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said in a press release on Friday that the government had begun preparing the E50 program. He said the President had instructed the ministry to study how the success of the 50 percent biodiesel blend, B50, could be applied to E50.
Fuel imports and demand
Prabowo linked the program to fuel imports. He said that once E50 and B50 were applied together, Indonesia could expect to stop buying fuel from abroad, provided the plans were carried out.
National diesel consumption is about 39 million kiloliters a year, and gasoline consumption is between 39 and 40 million kiloliters, according to the figures cited. Bahlil said in July that the government planned a mandatory bioethanol blend of 10 to 20 percent for the following year, with sugarcane, cassava and corn as possible feedstocks.
