The Indonesian government continues to strive to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports by utilizing renewable natural resources. One of them is by implementing BBM with a mixture of 40% palm oil or B40 which will come into effect on January 1st, 2025. Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia said the Indonesian government will build a methanol plant in Bojonegoro, East Java. Where this methanol plant is intended to meet biodiesel products. He expressed that we have B40 2025, in the future it will become B50. Of course, in the mixture, it requires methanol and ethanol. For example, methanol in B40, we need 2.3 million tons. The President's directive is that we also build it domestically. We will build it in Bojonegoro.
Bahlil said that the methanol factory in Bojonegoro with an investment value of around USD 1.2 billion or equivalent to IDR 19 trillion will be funded by domestic investors. However, he did not explain who the investors were who would build the methanol factory in Bojonegoro, East Java. He said that the investors are from within the country. There are no foreigners. Then for ethanol products, Bahlil said it would be produced from sugar cane. This ethanol factory would later be built in the Java and Merauke regions. So that the blending is truly done all domestically.