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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia is unlikely
to proceed with plans to raise the bio-content of its palm oil-based biodiesel
to 40% next year as it struggles to fund the program, an energy ministry
official told parliament, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Instead,
the Southeast Asian country will retain its biodiesel B30 program which makes it
compulsory for diesel in Indonesia to be blended with 30% fatty acid methyl
ester (FAME) made out of palm oil next year, Dadan Kusdiana, the director
general of the country's energy ministry, said. "B40 is not ready," Dadan said,
referring to the biodiesel program containing 40% bio-content and adding that
Indonesia had allocated 9.2 million kilolitres of FAME to be used next
year.
"Supporting B30 is now very challenging from the funding side, so
we see that B40 will be more difficult," he added. Indonesia collects levies to
help finance its palm oil programs, including biodiesel subsidies and replanting
programs for smallholders.
Other than a higher percentage of bio-content,
the B40 program will also be produced using a different formulation, combining
30% FAME and 10% "green diesel" made out of palm oil with conventional diesel.
Dadan said that the ministry is still conducting trials for the new
blend.
Although biodiesel promises lower emissions, the use of palm oil
as a feedstock raises concern about deforestation in the clearance of land to
grow it. The European Union is planning to phase it out as fuel for transport,
creating trade friction with Indonesia, the world's biggest producer of palm
oil.
As MRC informed earlier,
European and U.S. oil refineries face a wave of closures due to plateauing fuel
demand, tightening environmental rules and overseas competition, prompting some
owners to opt for an easier alternative - converting plants to produce
biofuels.
As MRC informed earlier,
Russia's output of chemical products rose in October 2020 by 7.2% year on year.
At the same time, production of basic chemicals grew in the first ten months of
2020 by 6.3% year on year. According to the Federal State Statistics
Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the
greatest increase in the January-October output. |
