Indonesia Plans to Make it Mandatory for CPO Producers to Produce Avtur

MINISTER of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan said that the government will make it mandatory for CPO producers to produce aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or avtur, from CPO in order to strengthen palm oil downstream industry.

Indonesia Plans to Make it Mandatory for CPO Producers to Produce Avtur
Menteri ESDM Ignasius Jonan (Foto: Tribunews/Herudin)

MINISTER of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignasius Jonan said that the government will make it mandatory for CPO producers to produce aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or avtur, from CPO in order to strengthen palm oil downstream industry.

PT Pertamina (Persero) has demonstrated that converting CPO into avtur is possible. Jonan said private companies are also possible to do the same because the technology is available. However, many companies are reluctant so that the government deems it appropriate to make it mandatory by enacting regulations.

“The President will execute it directly by enacting regulations which will make it mandatory for the industry to do downstream activities. It won’t be executed right away since the current cabinet has only two months in office,” Jonan said in Tembagapura, Papua (18/8/2019), as reported by CNBC Indonesia.

Jonan predicted the policy will be executed in the next three or five years. “The process is faster than exploring new oil reserves that takes seven to ten years. Converting CPO to avtur will take three to five years at the most.”

Earlier, President Joko Widodo said that Indonesia is implementing mandatory use of biodiesel 20% (B20) and will increase its bio-content to 30% (B30) next year. Moreover, Indonesia is able to produce B100. “The fact that we produce avtur by ourselves so that we don’t import avtur anymore. We can do more than that, we can export avtur, we want to produce avtur from palm oil as well,” he said in his state address before members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and Regional Representatives Council (DPD) in Jakarta, Friday (16/8/2019). ***