The biodiesel blend goes to B3

From 1 October 2024 the diesel sold at every Philippine pump carries 3% biodiesel by volume, up from the 2% that had applied since 2009. The department's circular of February 2024 sets 4% for October 2025 and 5% for October 2026. The biodiesel is coconut methyl ester, made from coconut oil, and the mandate is the Biofuels Act of 2006 finally moving.

Compiled in September 2026 from the releases of the time, with the revisions the agencies have published since. Nothing here is a forecast.

Why it stayed at 2% for fifteen years

The law allowed a higher blend from 2011, subject to supply. Coconut oil is a food and an export, and its price runs well above diesel; each point of blend is a point of pump price that has to be justified. The decision to move in 2024 came with coconut oil cheap relative to crude and with the ester plants running below capacity.

What it means at the pump

Roughly a peso a litre at the prices of the time, spread across every litre of diesel. The government's case is the coconut farmer's income and a small reduction in imported crude. The industrial user's case is that the diesel in the tank has changed and the boiler burning it should be checked: ester is a mild solvent and a different fuel from what the burner was set for.

The coconut side

Each percentage point of blend takes on the order of 100 million litres of ester a year, which is a meaningful share of the country's coconut oil. That is good for the mills and the farmers, and it is a reminder that the coconut industry is also an energy industry: the oil is a fuel, the shell is a fuel, and the husk is a fuel.

Why it is in this series

The blend mandate is a regulatory fuel switch, imposed on every diesel user by circular. A residue-fired boiler is a fuel switch a site chooses. The first is small and universal; the second is large and specific. Both are the same policy, which is to burn less imported crude, and the department is pursuing both.

If your site runs a fuel-fired boiler or produces an organic residue, an energy and waste audit puts your own numbers against this. Tell us about your site and an engineer replies with the data we need. The figures behind each quarter are in the quarterly market brief.