President States Indonesia Will Not Need to Import Fuel Oil in Three Years

President Prabowo Subianto has targeted Indonesia to be able to halt all fuel oil (BBM) import activities within the next two to three years to strengthen national energy independence.

“Perhaps in two or three years, we won’t need to import BBM at all,” said President Prabowo in his speech while inaugurating the VKTR electric commercial vehicle assembly plant in Magelang, Central Java, on Thursday.

He explained that this target would be achieved through the 100-gigawatt electrification programme, expected to be completed in two years. This programme includes the closure of 13 PLN-owned diesel power plants (PLTD) that have been consuming large amounts of solar fuel.

According to the President, closing these dozen PLTDs will directly save up to 200,000 barrels of solar per day. Currently, Indonesia still imports one million barrels of BBM every day, so reducing diesel usage will cut import dependency by 20 per cent.

In addition to electrifying power plants, the government is also encouraging the use of electric vehicles and the utilisation of other renewable energy sources, such as processing palm oil and used cooking oil into avtur.

Prabowo emphasised that massive investments will be allocated for building processing centres or refineries to support this transformation.

“We will be independent, we will be strong, we will stand on our own feet,” said Prabowo.