In 2024, the U.S. Grains Council continued to make significant progress with its ethanol promotional efforts in Indonesia, the largest gasoline market in Southeast Asia & Oceania. In collaboration with Pertamina, Indonesia’s state-owned oil company, the Council conducted four programs critical to scaling Indonesia’s fuel ethanol program and developing a significant export market for U.S. ethanol:
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- A two-day “Ethanol 101” corporate workshop for Pertamina’s holding companies, covering global best practices for fuel ethanol quality assurance, safety, infrastructure development and maintenance, vehicle compatibility and policy. The two-day workshop, organized by the Council, also included expert speakers from Toyota Motor Corporation and SGS.
- A commercial and technical study mission to the Philippines (that uses a nationwide E10 mandate and a discretionary E20 allowance), to showcase tenable commercial, technical and policy actions toward an ethanol mandate for Pertamina and the Government of Indonesia.
- A six-month assignment of the Council’s lead Global Technical Consultant to Pertamina’s commercial arm, leading the development of the state-owned enterprise’s corporate ethanol roadmap. A full operational audit and readiness program has been completed.
- The U.S. Executive Ethanol Mission to Indonesia in November 2024, during which leadership from Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association and U.S. Grains Council met with leadership from Pertamina and the Government of Indonesia to discuss the implementation of Indonesia’s ethanol policy and voice their support for Indonesia’s ethanol ambitions.
Council programming helped Pertamina’s E5 Pilot Project expand from 17 retail stations to approximately 110 retail stations across the island of Java, which houses roughly 55% of Indonesia’s 281 million population.
In late 2024, the Government of Indonesia announced its intentions to implement an E5 mandate on the island of Java in 2025 and a target date of 2029 for a nationwide E10 mandate. These policy actions would create annual fuel ethanol demands of 250 million gallons and 1 billion gallons, respectively. Given the lack of production capacity for fuel ethanol in Indonesia, this presents a significant export market opportunity for American corn farmers and the U.S. ethanol industry.
In 2024, the U.S. directly exported 30,021 gallons ($67,420) of fuel ethanol to Indonesia and indirectly exported 34.23 million gallons ($71,003,492) of fuel ethanol to Indonesia via gasoline blending in Singapore – a growth in U.S. ethanol exports of $55.5 million compared with 2023.
The Council’s $21,000 investment in Market Access Program (MAP) funds generated a ROI of $2,643 for every $1 of MAP invested, highlighting the success of this initiative. As Indonesia moves toward its ethanol blending targets, the U.S. ethanol market is set for substantial growth, bolstered by the Council’s ongoing support and expertise
