Pertamina And Airbus Agree To Develop Sustainable Fuel In Indonesia

Pertamina (Photo: dock. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Pertamina (Persero) together with the world aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, agreed to explore opportunities for developing a sustainable aviation fuel ecosystem or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in Indonesia.

The collaboration between Pertamina and Airbus was marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was held at the Bali International Air Show 2024 on Wednesday 18 September at Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali.

Through this collaboration, both parties will map the raw materials in this area and check the logistics needs and commercial development opportunities. The results of this study will support the development and production of domestic SAF in accordance with the requirements of ICAO-CORSIA and EU RED2.

Pertamina President Director Nicke Widyawati said that Pertamina plays an active role in building an environmentally friendly ecosystem. Through the development of green fuel, Pertamina is determined to carry out Indonesia's energy security and sovereignty mandate.

The partnership with Airbus is expected to improve Pertamina's ability to make breakthrough innovations and ecosystem development in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry. Together with Airbus, we will focus on developing SAF which is expected to support efforts to reduce carbon emissions," said Nicke, Thursday, September 19.

Airbus Chief Sustainability Officer, Julie Kitcher, welcomes cooperation with Pertamina and supports the potential development of the domestic SAF industry in Indonesia.

According to him, SAF is an essential step towards decarbonizing the aviation industry and Airbus is fully committed to improving its development and adoption.

"Indonesia offers significant potential in terms of providing SAF raw material sources approved by CORSIA and we welcome Indonesia's commitment to prioritizing SAF development," explained Julie.

Indonesia is projected to be one of the markets with the highest growth in the world in the aviation industry sector, with an estimated passenger traffic growth of around 7.4 percent per year. This figure is more than double the global average growth of 3.6 percent.

In addition, Indonesia also offers the largest potential as a source of raw materials for SAF, with promising potential sources such as used cooking oil, agricultural residue, and city waste.

As the main driving factor in efforts towards the decarbonization of the aviation industry, SAF allows carbon emissions to be reduced by an average of 80 percent compared to fossil fuels, from production to final use.