JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto said on Monday during an official visit to Japan that the South-East Asian country will go ahead this year with its B50 palm oil-based biodiesel programme.
"We are going in a big way to biofuel," he said at a business forum ahead of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
"We will produce this year diesel oil from palm oil, and now we are increasing from 40% to 50%."
In January, authorities scrapped a plan to launch B50 - a blend of 50% palm oil-based biodiesel and 50% conventional diesel - this year due to technical and funding concerns, instead sticking with the B40 blend.
But there have been talks to revive the plan in the light of the energy supply disruptions brought about by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by David Stanway) -- Reuters
