"It is important for the government to find a benchmark related to foreign exchange, which we can save," said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa on Thursday evening.
The government has realised the Indonesian PSO quota for fuel for 2013 (January to August) at ten million kilo litre, from the target of 15,659,208 kilo litre.
The minister mentioned that the government will blend 5.5 million kilo litre of the remaining PSO quota for fuel.
"Indonesia's fuel blending capacity has reached 3.7 million kilo litre. Pertamina can manage at least 379 thousand kilo litre of PSO quota for the remaining part of the year," said Hatta.
He predicts that the PSO fuel quota for 2014 will reach 16.5 million kilo litre. According to him, the government needs at least 1.650 million kilo litre of biodiesel for blending.
The minister added that the total volume of biodiesel will increase if the government added Non-PSO fuel to the amount.
"Pertamina managed at least 12,011,128 kilo litres of PSO diesel fuel. The company has distributed around 8 million kilo litres between January and August," noted Hatta.
He said the remaining four million litres of Non-PSO biodiesel will be fulfilled by Pertamina.
"The figures show that Indonesia needs additional 201,536 kilo litres of biodiesel," said Hatta.
Hatta added that through better fuel management, Indonesia can save US$2.625 billion or 3.34 million kilolitres.
The total foreign exchange saved from PSO and Non-PSO fuel stands at US$3.3 billion, said the minister.
Hatta believes that the government can reduce the current account deficit by reducing the import of fuel oil.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
