Indonesia's petrol to be blended with 5% ethanol from July in several regions

Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) will begin mandating the use of petrol blended with ethanol at 5% (E5) in July 2026. The policy will be implemented in selected areas first, aligning with domestic feedstock production capacity. Director General of New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (Dirjen EBTKE) Eniya Listiani Dewi explained that the distribution plan for E5 focuses on locations near sources of local supply. Using feedstock produced domestically is a step to strengthen national energy resilience. “The E5 mandate is OK to be issued later with a Kepmen for volume allocation. The instruction from the minister is that it must be local. So we have identified how much ethanol fuel grade can be produced,” she said at The 50th IPA Convention & Exhibition (Convex) at ICE BSD, Tangerang, on Thursday (21 May 2026). Currently the government has identified three local companies capable of supplying 26,000 kilolitres of ethanol. The quantity will be set through a Ministerial Decree (Kepmen) as the legal basis to determine the volume of E5 gasoline circulating in the market. “The local feedstock that can deliver fuel-grade ethanol amounts to 26,000 from three companies. This is just collected; I will recapitulate; this ongoing until the end of May, and in June the Kepmen process and related steps will finalize the volume,” she added. The initial distribution areas focus on Java Island, including Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Yogyakarta. Eniya said Pertamina (Persero) has prepared 179 distribution points and plans to add new points as the policy progresses. “In line with the locations mentioned—the Java region, including Jogja—it’s not nationwide for now; the minister’s instruction is to use local feedstock,” she noted. After Java, the government foresees expansion to Bali and Lampung in coming years. The programme is part of the energy transition roadmap to achieve a higher biodiesel-biodiesel-like blend with E20 by 2028. “The target is 2028 E20. We aim to strengthen our resilience by utilising natural resources such as sugarcane and possibly corn-based bioethanol, with cassava and other sources potentially coming online next year,” she concluded.