Indonesia to finalise roadmap to develop SAF by June

The Indonesia government hopes to finalise a national roadmap and action plan for the industrial development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by June.

The roadmap and proposed action plan consists of three main pillars, demand, supply and enablers, according to the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment on 29 May. This involves ensuring raw material availability, certainty of SAF offtake, and mechanisms to reduce impact on prices, among other aims. The country also plans to announce a presidential regulation related to the SAF roadmap on the sidelines of the Bali International Air Show in September, with no further details disclosed.

The action plan is prepared with a 2025-30 timeline and will be reviewed and updated periodically. The demand pillar was discussed previously, and the ministry is holding a meeting on 31 May to discuss the supply and enablers pillars.

The roadmap currently focuses on used cooking oil (UCO) and crude palm oil (CPO) residue as SAF feedstocks. Seaweed is also a potential raw material to be researched, said Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan on 29 May.

"SAF is the most effective solution" to reduce carbon emissions, based on various data, studies, and increasing aviation activity, said Luhut.

The government might choose to keep more feedstocks like UCO domestically, given the country's aims to produce more SAF, and potentially impose export taxes, raise export levies or adjust domestic market obligations (DMO), market participants said. But they noted these measures to regulate exports will be more likely with higher domestic refinery capabilities to take waste-based feedstocks, and nothing is concrete for now.

Pertamina

State-owned oil company Pertamina plans to power a plane with a small amount of imported blended SAF during the Bali International Air Show in September, said a company source. The SAF will be UCO-based and consist of around 15pc SAF blended with fossil jet fuel.

Pertamina previously supplied 2.4pc SAF-blended jet fuel to national airline Garuda Indonesia, and the country's first successful test flight using a commercial aircraft was conducted on 26 October 2023.

Pertamina previously produced SAF and renewable diesel at its Cilacap and Dumai refineries, but using refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil. It plans to bring the second phase of its Cilacap "green refinery" on line in 2026's fourth quarter, which will use palm and waste-based feedstocks such as UCO and palm oil mill effluent (Pome) oil to produce around 132,000 t/yr of SAF.

Indonesia exported an average of 235,800 t/yr of UCO between 2019-23, according to GTT data. Malaysia was the top recipient of volumes as the country is also a main location where UCO is aggregated before beingexported elsewhere, followed by the Netherlands and Singapore.

By Sarah Giam