Pertamina's Used Cooking Oil and Food Waste Innovations Deliver Real Impact
Workers at PT Pertamina (Persero) have once again produced hundreds of brilliant ideas, ranging from processing used cooking oil into future aircraft fuel to formulating food waste into protective agents for drilling equipment that can save billions of rupiah in operational costs.
These real breakthroughs were the highlight of the 16th Annual Pertamina Quality (APQ) Awards 2026, held at the Grha Pertamina Ballroom in Jakarta. With the theme ‘Elevating Talent, Accelerating Innovation, and Delivering Enterprise Value’, the event featured 915 Pertamina personnel grouped into 120 innovation clusters.
One of the stars of the event was an innovation from Pertamina Patra Niaga’s Cilacap Refinery. Addressing the global energy transition challenge, the team successfully developed Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), an environmentally friendly aircraft fuel processed from used cooking oil. This breakthrough represents a concrete step by Pertamina in building a low-carbon business and pursuing its Net Zero Emission target.
Not to be outdone, a team from PT Pertamina Drilling Services Indonesia (PDSI) achieved Platinum status with an innovation dubbed ‘Skin Care’ for rig equipment. They created an anti-corrosion fluid for drilling tools made from food waste. The breakthrough delivered fantastic savings for the company, valued at Rp 81 billion.
‘This Skin Care innovation was born from tough challenges in the field. Our drilling equipment is highly susceptible to rust. By using these environmentally friendly raw materials, we not only maintain the quality of the tools but also reduce potential environmental pollution while cutting down on waste,’ said Riyan Tamara, Manager of Organization & Quality Management at PT PDSI.
Pertamina’s Human Resources Director, Andy Arvianto, stressed that the hundreds of innovations emerging from the APQ Awards 2026 have a significant impact that goes far beyond mere process efficiency. The effort aims not only to improve internal company processes but also to enhance corporate value through cost efficiency, operational reliability, and talent competency strengthening.
‘This event is not just a competition for the company’s talent, but a strategic instrument that reflects the state of innovation and quality across all Pertamina Group entities. The results of the APQ Awards assessment will serve as data and insights for management to map strengths, gaps, and improvement opportunities across all organisational lines,’ Andy explained.
He added that, in line with the theme, the APQ Awards also act as a transformation accelerator, pushing each entity to achieve a complete system with increasingly mature sustainability and governance year after year. This year, the jury awarded the highest Platinum honour to 40 clusters, followed by Gold for 53 clusters and Silver for 27 clusters.
VP Corporate Communication of Pertamina, Muhammad Baron, assured that these brilliant ideas will not stop at the awards stage. All innovations will be entered into Pertamina’s knowledge management system so they can be replicated in other operational units throughout Indonesia.
‘The mandate to safeguard national energy security must be accompanied by business processes that continue to innovate more quickly, effectively, and optimally. We will closely monitor the sustainability of these innovations through post-competition sustainability audits, so that their impact is truly felt in the long term,’ Baron concluded.