Talking about Energy Independence, Jokowi Talks about Processed Palm Oil and Coal

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – President Joko Widodo emphasized the importance of energy independence for Indonesia. He said, currently Indonesia continues to strive to achieve energy independence through coconut processing palm to coal.

“Great efforts have also been made and are being made to build energy independence,” he said Jokowi in a speech at the MPR annual session, Friday (14/8/2020).

According to him, in 2019, Indonesia has succeeded in producing and using 20 percent of Biodiesel (B20) energy.

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This year, Indonesia began to enter B30, so as to reduce the value of oil imports.

Pertamina in collaboration with researchers has also succeeded in creating a catalyst for the manufacture of D100.

“Namely diesel fuel made from 100 percent palm oil, which is currently testing production at our two refineries,” said Jokowi.

Jokowi said that the fuel would later absorb a minimum of 1 million tons of palm oil produced by farmers for a production capacity of 20,000 barrels per day.

The downstreaming of other raw materials, he continued, also continues to be carried out on a large scale.

“For example, coal is processed into methanol and gas,” said the Head of State.

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Jokowi added that several refineries were also built to process crude oil into finished oil, and at the same time act as a driving force for the petrochemical industry that supplies high value added downstream industrial products.

Nickel ore can also be processed into ferro nickel, stainless steel slabs, steel sheets, and developed into the main material for lithium batteries.

Jokowi believes that these various efforts can improve the current account deficit, increase employment opportunities, and begin to reduce the dominance of fossil energy.

“This will make Indonesia a very strategic position in the development of lithium batteries, world electric cars, and technology producers in the future,” he said.

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