Indonesia's plan to mandate 20% bioethanol blending in petrol by 2028 will be scaled back, likely landing near E10 to E12 nationwide rather than full E20.

Government figures show fuel-grade ethanol capacity of roughly 70,000 kilolitres against an annual requirement near 4 million kilolitres for full E20, a gap the newly scrapped bioethanol excise tax alone cannot close. Indonesia's palm-based biodiesel programme took over a decade to scale using abundant feedstock; sugarcane and cassava-based ethanol lacks that surplus, so the promised energy-security win will likely need costly imports or a diluted mandate instead.