Prabowo to Open Palm Oil and Used Cooking Oil Processing Centre into Aviation Fuel
President Prabowo Subianto has revealed the potential of palm oil, including used cooking oil or jelantah, to serve as aviation fuel if processed correctly. The government, he stated, will open processing centres to transform palm oil, jelantah, and waste into avtur.
“Now avtur can even come from palm oil, and we have plenty of palm oil. Even avtur can be made from jelantah, from waste, from cooking oil residues; we can process them into avtur,” said Prabowo during the inauguration of the electric commercial vehicle assembly plant owned by PT VKTR Sakti Industries in Magelang, Central Java, on Thursday (9/4/2026).
“And in a short while, we will open processing centres, refineries for this,” he added.
He stated that this is being done to reduce dependence on carbon and fossil energy. To that end, the government is prepared to invest heavily in the processing project.
“We will invest massively in that sector,” he said.
On the other hand, Prabowo urged the public to start abandoning carbon and fossil energy. He encouraged society to switch to clean and renewable energy and to use electrification.
“No matter what, we must save energy. No matter what, we must now move towards clean energy, renewable energy. One step is to use electricity, electrification,” said Prabowo.
Energy Self-Sufficiency
Prabowo targets Indonesia to be able to mass-produce electric sedans by 2028. He is optimistic that this target can be achieved because Indonesia is currently producing environmentally friendly energy-based commercial vehicles.
“So today, I am very pleased, I am very proud, now in Indonesia we have the capability to produce electric buses and trucks. This is very important,” said Prabowo.
“And indeed, our plan, I hope that in 2028, we will mass-produce electric sedans,” he added.
According to him, the current industrial achievements serve as an important foundation towards the target in supporting energy self-sufficiency. Indonesia is no longer just a consumer but has entered the phase as a producer by producing electric vehicles on a large scale.
“So now there are electric buses, electric trucks, and the capacity is also quite large. It’s proud,” said Prabowo.