Indonesia's B40 Reaches 6.8 Million kL in First Half of 2025

Jakarta — Indonesia distributed 6.8 million kilolitres of B40 biodiesel in the first half of 2025, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said during his ministry's performance briefing on Monday, 11 August 2025. The figure represented 50.4% of the 13.5 million-kilolitre target presented at the briefing. It measures delivery during six months of the 40% biodiesel blending programme, not completion of the full-year target.

Half the reported target in six months

Bloomberg Technoz reported that B40 distribution had reached 6.8 million kilolitres by the end of June, citing the ministry's presentation. For comparison, it put full-year biodiesel use in 2024, when the blend was B35, at 13.2 million kilolitres. A six-month volume cannot be directly compared with a full-year figure to infer annual growth; the periods are different.

ANTARA quoted Bahlil referring to a 2025 target of 13.5 million kilolitres and first-half delivery of 6.8 million kilolitres. The 50.4% share was presented by the ministry. An earlier energy-ministry statement in January announced a B40 allocation of 15.6 million kilolitres for 2025. The early-year allocation and the target used at the August briefing should not be treated as interchangeable figures. The accessible statements do not fully explain the difference between them.

Readers should distinguish a programme's allocation, a subsequently stated target and the volume actually distributed. The biodiesel mandate timeline shows the policy setting, while assessment of first-half performance requires distribution data.

Government benefit figures and an industrial price issue

According to ANTARA's account of Bahlil's presentation, the government put foreign-exchange savings from biodiesel in 2025 at US$3.68 billion, or around IDR 60.37 trillion. It also estimated IDR 9.51 trillion in added value from processing crude palm oil (CPO) into biodiesel. These are benefit calculations presented by the government; the reports examined here do not provide enough methodological detail to treat them as independently audited outcomes.

Costs remained a separate concern. ANTARA quoted Eniya Listiani Dewi, director-general of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (EBTKE), acknowledging complaints about the price of B40 for some non-public-service-obligation (non-PSO) industrial users. She cited examples ranging from about IDR 12,000 to IDR 24,000, but the report did not specify each transaction. That range is not one official price charged to every industrial consumer.

In a separate report on the same day, Bloomberg Technoz said Bahlil was seeking a formula that would make B40 more affordable to industry. No final new price policy was announced in that report. Non-PSO industrial purchases and subsidised distribution under public service obligations (PSO) operate under different arrangements, so a complaint from one segment does not describe the costs faced by every diesel user.

What the evaluation leaves open

Distribution of 6.8 million kilolitres demonstrates large-scale implementation in the first half. Whether the programme meets its 2025 objectives remains contingent on deliveries in the second half and how the industrial price issue is addressed. Official economic-benefit claims should also be distinguished from buyers' reported experience.

ANTARA reported Eniya saying that a road test for B50 had not yet taken place at the time of this review, even as officials discussed the next blending level. Discussion of B50 is a plan, not proof of technical readiness or an implementation decision. For now, actual B40 deliveries, fuel quality and the cost to different user groups remain the key measures to watch.