JAKARTA, July 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil manufacturer, is checking fuel with a view to increasing to 40% from 35% the share of palm-oil combined into biodiesel next year, the energy ministry stated.

If implemented, the B40 mandate could increase biodiesel consumption to as much as 16 million kilolitres (KL) next year, the ministry stated, from 13 million KL estimated to be consumed in 2024.

“We hope the trials could be finished in December, so that complete implementation of B40 might be performed in 2025,” energy ministry senior official Eniya Listiani Dewi stated in a statement on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) stated the industry had the capacity to meet B40 need, with installed capability expected to rise to 20 million KL annually next year from 18 million KL now.

“However we will require more basic materials to fulfill B40 demand,” Ernest Gunawan, the secretary general of APROBI told Reuters on Wednesday.

The biodiesel industry would require 13.9 million metric lots of crude palm oil to produce 16 million KL biodiesel next year, from the estimated 11 million loads needed this year, he added.

Indonesia’s biggest palm oil association GAPKI stated a decline in exports meant there would suffice raw products to supply the B40 required for now.

But the market would need to examine “which one would be more valuable”, GAPKI chairman Eddy Martono said, referring to the possibility an increase in exports would make supplying the less viable.

Indonesia’s palm oil output is approximated to reach 54.4 million lots in 2024, a 2.26% increase from in 2015, while exports are expected to decrease by 2.47% to 29.5 million lots as domestic intake rose, driven by biodiesel mandate.

The ministry had actually evaluated the biodiesel, mixed with 40% of palm oil, on a train for the very first time previously this week, while planning to check the B40 mix on agriculture machinery, power plants and in the shipping market, it stated. (Reporting by Bernadette Christina and Dewi Kurniawati