4/7/06 JAKARTA (Business Times) -  Indonesia plans to boost output of palm oil, sugar cane and vegetable oils used in making biofuels that will help the nation reduce the use of petroleum products, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said in an interview.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono decided that Indonesia should focus on making biofuels from four commodities, including castor oil and cassava oil. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held on Sunday in Magelang in Central Java.

"We will boost production of these commodities quickly," Anton said in a phone interview from Magelang yesterday. "Currently, the top priority is palm oil and sugar cane. We are most prepared on these two now."

Indonesia, South-East Asia's biggest oil producer and consumer, wants to use more fuel that's derived from plants to reduce imports of expensive petroleum and refined products. Even with refineries running at full capacity, Indonesia needs to import a third of the country's fossil fuel requirements.

The Government wants to replace 10 per cent of oil products used in Indonesia with biofuel by 2010, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, minister for energy and mineral resources, said in a parliamentary session yesterday.

Indonesia's palm oil output is expected to rise to between 14.7 million tonnes and 15 million tonnes this year, from 13.6 million tonnes in 2005, Bangun said.

The Government expects Indonesia to have an additional 2 million to 3 million hectares of oil palm plantation by 2010, Anton said. He didn't give target figures for sugar cane and other plantations. - Bloomberg