Prabowo Targets Indonesia to Produce 20% Ethanol-Blended Fuel (E20) by 2028
President Prabowo Subiante held a limited cabinet meeting on Wednesday night (16/09/2026) to discuss the implementation of the 20% bioethanol fuel blend programme, known as E20.
The programme is targeted for implementation by 2028. “The meeting was led directly by the President; we discussed ensuring that in two years’ time, we can produce at least E20,” said Prabowo following the session.
According to Zulhas, during the meeting, the President requested that the Minister of Agriculture, Andi Amran, prepare a plan for providing the land necessary to produce bioethanol raw materials. Meanwhile, the Danantara Investment Management Agency has been tasked with preparing the processing industry.
“For Danantara, the industry will focus on converting ethanol, which is most feasible from sugarcane. We will prepare approximately 2 million hectares of land, spanning areas outside Java, within Java, and in Sumatra,” said Zulhas.
“We must work hard over the next two years; looking at current global developments, we must be capable of producing E20. That is the core essence of our discussion,” he added.
During the session, Zulhas acknowledged that land availability for ethanol raw materials is often a bottleneck. However, following the discussions, it was decided that land allocations of up to 2 million hectares could be provided in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Papua, and Java for sugarcane cultivation.
“For the first stage, it is 2 million hectares. The bottleneck is land, but after mapping it out and assigning tasks to State-Owned Enterprises and the Minister of Agriculture, we expect to secure that 2 million hectares,” he noted.
Furthermore, he stated that this policy will not stop at E20, but rather the ethanol blend in petrol will be increased to a composition of 50% (E50).
“E20 will be entirely domestic. Gradually, we will move towards E50, similar to the B50 programme, but the first step is E20. In the long term, we are heading towards E50,” he said.
In a separate instance, the CEO of the Danantara Investment Management Agency, Rosan Roeslani, revealed that Danantara will support the programme to reduce fuel imports and increase national foreign exchange reserves.
“Essentially, we at Danantara will support programmes that are beneficial for reducing imports and increasing foreign exchange. We certainly support this,” said Rosan.
Finance Minister Suahasil Nazara disclosed that the meeting also addressed energy security and the technology required to support it. The government’s energy security programme will be supported by the private sector and Danantara.
The meeting was also attended by the Governor of Bank Indonesia, Destry Damayanti, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia, Head of the State-Owned Enterprises Agency Dony Oskaria, Vice President Director of PT Pertamina (Persero) Oki Muraza, and Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran.