Higher biodiesel blend to be delayed, says DOE

ISTANBUL, Turkey – The implementation of the higher five- percent biodiesel blend from the current two percent as required by the Biofuels Act of 2006 may be delayed beyond 2015, a ranking Energy official said.

On the sidelines of the Department of Energy’s third leg of its international roadshow here for the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 5 (PECR 5), Energy Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada told The STAR that the department is still studying the higher blend after initially targeting to implement this next year.

“The original target is up for review,” Monsada said.

She said many developments have happened such as Super Typhoon Yolanda, which may have affected supply.

She said there are four working groups that are studying the possibility of moving the target, considering four factors such as supply, logistics, technical and economics.

Monsada said that in the area of supply, the technical working group is studying how the supply of coconut and the industry’s capacity to process, among others.

On economics, the technical working group is studying the impact of the higher blend on fuel prices as well as transportation costs and inflation.

The Department of Energy was earlier looking at implementing the required higher blend this year instead of the original 2015 target but local petroleum firms have said they are not ready.

Industry players such as Chemrez Technologies earlier said the blending of cocobiodiesel into diesel would reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, in accordance with the Philippine Energy Plan that aims to achieve energy independence within the next decade. 

Furthermore, Chemrez said simply blending five-percent coco biodiesel into diesel can save the Philippines an estimated P13 billion worth of imported crude oil every year. 

Under the law, the amount of coconut oil for fuel to be blended with diesel may be increased taking into account considerations such as domestic supply and availability of locally sourced biodiesel.

However, since 2009, biodiesel has been blended at two percent with diesel fuel.