Expanded B20 Program Officially Launched

The expanded B20 program was officially launched, Friday (31/8/2018), made it mandatory for biodiesel to have a bio-content of 20 percent. This program mandates the use of B20 both in Public Service Obligation (PSO) and non-PSO sectors, starting from 1 September 2018. The launching ceremony was held in area of Ministry of Coordinating Economic Affairs office in Jakarta. Attendees at the ceremony included Ministry of Coordinating Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini M. Soemarno, President Director of the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) Dono Boestami, Secretary General of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) Ego Syahrial, Director General of New and Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation of the MEMR Rida Mulyana, and President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Nicke Widyawati. “We feel grateful that we can go according to plan to launch the expanded B20 mandatory program both for PSO and non-PSO,” Darmin said. He also said that the program is aimed to save country’s foreign exchange reserves and to stabilize the current account deficit. “One of the easiest policies to gain foreign exchange is B20 mandatory. As soon as it is implemented, we can save the foreign exchange reserves because we cut fuel import and substitute them with CPO,” Darmin said. Meanwhile, President Director of BPDPKS Dono Boestami said that BPDPKS is ready to support the policy. “We have determined to make a success of this program by providing biodiesel incentives,” Dono said. He was confident that the fund managed by BPDPKS can suffice to incentivize biodiesel producers in the fund`s support of the government’s expanded B20 program. “We could support if any addition production up to 6 million kiloliter,” Dono said. Incentives disbursed by BPDPKS is aimed to cover the Market Price Index (MPI) gap between biodiesel and conventional diesel. Incentives will be disbursed only if biodiesel MPI is higher than diesel MPI. The launching ceremony was marked with filling up petrol tank of a truck and a bus with B20 by Darmin and Rini as a symbol of starting the expanded B20 mandatory program, followed by other officials. ***