Indonesia to raise mandatory share of bioethanol in gasoline to 10% by 2028, official says
Gasoline flows into an underground tank at the Pertamina petrol station in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Beawiharta
JAKARTA, Feb 5 : Indonesia plans to impose a mandatory bioethanol content level of 10 per cent for gasoline in 2028, energy ministry official Tri Winarno said on Thursday.
Indonesia is aiming to expand the use of biofuels made from palm oil and sugar cane to reduce imports and become more energy-self sufficient.
However, ethanol supply constraints have forced it to delay plans to raise the mandatory bioethanol content for gasoline.
Previously, the energy ministry said the mandatory bioethanol content level of 10 per cent would be introduced in 2027 but that has now been pushed back to a year later.
"To reduce gasoline imports, the government has set a mandatory bioethanol target of 5 per cent by 2025 which will increase to 10 per cent by 2028," Winarno told an energy seminar.
Indonesia did not meet the 2025 target because ethanol supplies were insufficient.
Indonesia plans to produce 0.80 million kilolitres of bioethanol by 2028, energy ministry data showed, with national gasoline demand at 39.9 million kilolitres.
The government will introduce a number of measures ahead of the implementation, including improvements to the quality of gasoline as the base fuel, increases in infrastructural capacity and the diversification of feedstocks, Winarno said.
