From Biodiesel, DME to Carbon Capture, Pertamina Realizes a Sustainable Green Economy

Jakarta, May 17, 2021 - PT Pertamina (Persero) continues to prioritize various energy transition programs towards new and renewable energy by utilizing abundant energy sources in the country and optimizing existing businesses' infrastructure. It is in line with the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, regarding the Grand National Energy Strategy for energy transformation and strengthening green economy, green technology, and green products.

President Director of Pertamina, Nicke Widyawati, said that Indonesia is currently facing challenges to overcome the Current Account Deficit due to high energy imports. On the other hand, Indonesia is a country that has large domestic resources that can be used as raw materials for energy. For this condition, Pertamina has 3 (three) priority programs as part of implementing the energy transition and the green economy.

The first priority is to reduce diesel fuel imports through Biodiesel B20 since 2016 and has been continued with B30 in 2019. "With this program, Pertamina has succeeded in reducing diesel imports significantly. Starting April 2019, Pertamina has no longer import diesel fuel," she explained.

The second program, said Nicke, is to reduce dependence on LPG imports. Pertamina is running a coal gasification project into Dimethyl Ether (DME), replacing LPG usage domestically.

"Indonesia, as one of the countries with the largest coal reserves, has a good opportunity to gasify coal into DME. We are sure that the development of DME can achieve the government's target of being free of LPG imports by 2027," she added.

Nicke continued that the third program was to reduce imports of Gasoline fuel. Pertamina would mix Methanol and Ethanol with Gasoline. Methanol can be produced from natural gas or coal gasification, and Ethanol can also be produced from coal gasification or other bio-ethanol sources.

Nicke added that Pertamina is simultaneously implementing Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology to minimize carbon emissions and enhance oil and gas recovery in Pertamina's wells to expand the country's oil and gas production. It is to secure the sustainability of existing business lines and solve environmental challenges from coal gasification. 

Pertamina is also exploring the potential for cooperation with ExxonMobil and is currently conducting a CO2 injection study collaboration in the Gundih exploration field and the Sukowati exploration field in collaboration with several other partners.

"Through integrated carbon capture usage within the DME project, Pertamina believes it can reduce carbon emissions by up to 45%," he concluded.**