Officials say that Indonesia will increase the mandatory bioethanol content in gasoline from 5% to 10% by 2028.

Tri Winarno, a senior official in the energy ministry, said that Indonesia will impose a 10% bioethanol content requirement for gasoline by 2028.

Indonesia aims to increase the use of biofuels produced from palm oil or sugar cane in order to reduce imports, and to become more energy independent.

Despite the ethanol shortage, it has decided to delay its plans to increase the bioethanol content in gasoline.

The energy ministry had previously said that the 10% mandatory bioethanol level would be implemented in 2027, but this has now been pushed back a year.

Winarno, a speaker at an energy seminar, said that the government had set a mandatory target of bioethanol of 5% in 2025. This will rise to 10% by 2020.

Insufficient ethanol supply prevented Indonesia from meeting its 2025 goal.

Indonesia will produce 0.80 million kilograms of bioethanol by the year 2028. The national demand for gasoline is 39.9 million kilograms.

Winarno stated that the government would 'introduce' a number measures before the implementation of the plan, including improvements to the?quality of gasoline used as the base fuel and increases in infrastructure capacity. (Reporting Bernadette Cristina, Ananda Terresia; editing by David Stanway).

(source: Reuters)