Indonesia Reviews B30 in 2021: 97.89% Utilisation, Currency Saving Still a Projection

Bogor — Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) released its B30 assessment on 23 December 2021. Biodiesel utilisation stood at 97.89% of an allocation of 9.21 million kilolitres, while B30 deliveries accounted for 94.17% of total diesel distribution. Officials also described a potential foreign-exchange saving of US$4.54 billion. These were figures presented following a review meeting in Bogor on 22 December, not an independently audited final account of the year.

Two percentages, two denominators

The Directorate General of Oil and Gas said the 97.89% figure measured biodiesel used against the allocation cited at the review. By contrast, 94.17% measured B30 deliveries against total diesel distributed by fuel companies. The first refers to the biofuel quota and the second to distribution of the blended fuel. They should not be treated as interchangeable measures of compliance. ANTARA reported the same distinction in its 23 December article.

Soerjaningsih, the ministry's director for downstream oil and gas business development, led the hybrid review. She urged fuel distributors to minimise supplies of unblended diesel, known as B0, outside authorised exemptions. The warning about possible administrative penalties indicates that high utilisation of a quota did not, on its own, resolve every problem in the distribution chain.

The US$4.54 billion figure was presented as a potential saving in foreign exchange. ANTARA translated that amount into roughly IDR 64.6 trillion. This report retains the dollar figure rather than presenting different rupiah conversions as separate estimates. Neither the reported utilisation rate nor the currency saving should be mistaken for a verified final figure after the full calendar year had closed.

Financing and contracts for the coming year

Edi Wibowo of the Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) said biodiesel programme payments in 2021 reached IDR 51.86 trillion, compared with IDR 28 trillion in 2020. The 2021 sum included payments carried over from 2020 as well as payments made through November. It therefore cannot simply be equated with the cost of biodiesel consumed within one calendar year.

ESDM said 18 fuel businesses had received allocations for 2022 totalling 10.151 million kilolitres. Soerjaningsih called for contracts between fuel distributors and biofuel producers to be in place so that the allocation could be used. An allocation is a forward plan, not evidence that all the fuel for 2022 had already been delivered.

ESDM bioenergy director Andriah Feby Misna welcomed earlier procurement because it would give suppliers and blenders more time to prepare contracts. ANTARA carried the same point. For the year ahead, the practical test would be whether blended fuel reached distribution points reliably and whether interruptions resulting in B0 supplies could be prevented.

Reading the benefits claim

B30 blends 30% biodiesel with diesel. Officials linked the programme to lower import dependence and renewable energy use. Claims about the trade balance, farmers' welfare and emissions in the official account remain government assessments; the two contemporary reports do not provide an independent methodology for testing all of those outcomes. The potential currency saving must therefore be distinguished from operational distribution data.

The assessment identified two separate tasks: maintaining supplies of the blend and financing the difference in fuel prices. The biodiesel mandate data offers background, but future-year performance was not yet an observed outcome at the time of this report.