PT Pertamina (Persero) presented the company’s business roadmap in the biofuels and decarbonization business to business people and practitioners in Singapore. The presentation was delivered directly by Nicke Widyawati, President Director of Pertamina at the Southeast Asia-Latin American Dialogues (SALA Dialogues) held on Wednesday (16/10) at the INSEAD Hoffmann Institute, Singapore.
In the Fuelling the Future: Biofuels and the Decarbonization Journey session, Nicke explained that in the future Indonesia faces 4 challenges, namely the first net oil importer, the target of net zero emissions by 2060, the target of becoming a high-income country and creating jobs. Nicke explained that biofuels and decarbonization programs can be the answer to these challenges.
“Indonesia through Pertamina has implemented the biodiesel initiative since 2010, now it has succeeded in producing and utilizing B35 biodiesel which has proven to be successful in substituting diesel imports. Since April 2019, Pertamina has no longer imported diesel and avtur. In addition, B35 is also able to reduce CO2 emissions by 32.7 million tons in 2023,” explained Nicke.
Another advantage of biodiesel is the ease of the blending process, or the process of mixing fossil fuels with biodiesel. If biofuel must be produced in a large-scale refinery, biodiesel blending can be done at the final terminal.
“The beauty of biodiesel is the ease of the blending process that can be done at the fuel terminal or final terminal. Pertamina has more than 1000 fuel terminals in Indonesia. This will encourage the development of bioethanol plants which will certainly help improve the local economy and create jobs,” said Nicke.
Nicke further explained that the success of biodiesel implementation will be replicated for gasoline products, which are expected to reduce imports and at the same time achieve national energy security. Currently, Pertamina has started with E5 biofuel products.
“We have started biofuel with E5 in several areas in Java, namely in East Java and are gradually increasing it,” explained Nicke.
Nicke said that Pertamina cannot work alone to carry out the task of energy transition and sustainable innovation of green energy products. Collaboration and knowledge transfer with strategic business partners and other countries are needed. In this dialogue, Nicke opened up opportunities to collaborate with Latin American countries to jointly develop biodiesel and biofuel.
“For the bioethanol program, we see the potential for collaboration between Indonesia and Brazil. We want to learn holistically how Brazil has successfully implemented bioethanol, starting from the plantation process, development of bioethanol plants, technology, how to attract investors, and also from the regulatory side. The hope is that the bioethanol program can support the achievement of the net zero carbon target,” concluded Nicke.
SALA Dialogues was also attended by 150 business people and practitioners across sectors from various Southeast Asian and Latin American countries. The purpose of this activity is to build global collaboration to find solutions to the net zero carbon issue and the world’s food security issue, which can later encourage the opening of new businesses and investment opportunities between countries.
Pertamina as a leading company in the energy transition sector, is committed to supporting the Net Zero Emission 2060 target by continuing to encourage programs that have a direct impact on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All of these efforts are in line with the implementation of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) across all of Pertamina’s business lines and operations.