TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State gas and oil company Pertamina has kicked off the distribution of fuel with 30 percent biodiesel or B30 both for transportation and industry needs. This is carried out a month earlier from the target of the program implementation in January 2020.

Vice President Corporate Communication Fajriyah Usman said her side had conducted trials of mixing fuel with fatty acid methyl ester from crude palm oil (CPO) at 30 percent in the Rewulu fuel terminal in Yogyakarta and Boyolali fuel terminal in Central Java last week. The mixing result is publicly distributed at the same price of B20.

The fuel mixing will also be carried out in six other fuel terminals in the near future until December 31, 2019, namely in Balikpapan, Medan Group, Jakarta Group, Panjang, RU III Plaju, and RU VII Kasim. The corporate targeted the program in 28 terminals in January 2020.

“During the implementation of the trial, B30 to be produced will amount to 670,000 kiloliters,” said Fajriyah, Sunday, November 24.

Fajriyah stressed that Pertamina was ready to expedite the B30 implementation, which is expected to generate multiplier impacts on other sectors, including the palm oil industry.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Arifin Tasrif, had inked a legal umbrella for the distribution of B30 under Ministerial Decree No. 227 K/10/MEM/2019.

The ministry’s spokesman Agung Pribadi said the earlier trial of the distribution of B30 would provide additional foreign exchange savings from the drop in diesel imports by around 10 percent and increase the absorption of around 72,000 liters of biodiesel until the end of the trial. This year’s allocation for the B20 program alone was set at around 6.6 million kiloliters.

VINDRY FLORENTIN