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Sunday, 20 June 10
OUR COAL: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
 Indonesia’s production of coal has been growing amazingly. In the mid 1980s, national coal production was less than 1 million tons per annum, whereas energy planners (in the fourth Five Year Development Plan: 1989-1994) pointed at 10 million tons as the national production target.
The current production has jumped dramatically, recorded as 237 million tons in 2008 (predicted to achieve 270 million tons this year), making Indonesia a world class producer and the largest exporter of coal around the globe. The skyrocketing growth of our coal production has also incited many controversial issues.
Coal is considered as the dirtiest among fossil fuels, making environmentalists oppose their wide use
as fuel.
However, the proposal for ceasing use of coal — power generation, for instance — would be challenged by power utilities demanding low cost fuel that coal may offer and by the government, which has the responsibility to provide electricity as well as have revenue from exploiting its energy resources.
Despite the world’s rising anxiety of global warming, IEA (International Energy Agency: World Energy Outlook 2009) statistics shows that the world consumption for coal, for the last decade, is still growing the fastest among primary energy sources.
The environmental problem associated with coal in Indonesia is not limited to green houses gases (GHG), but also damage and pollution since its exploitation, transportation and uses to post mining.
It is easy to find where many coal fields are not mined appropriately according to “good mining and environmental practices”, coal transportation is not considering safety standards and is damaging rivers, (public) roads and seashores.
The coal mining has polluted the land, water and air of especially Kalimantan, where more than 90 percent of Indonesia’s coal mining operations take place.
It is sad that many of the previous mining areas have been abandoned without being properly reclaimed, whereas thousands of hectares of the island’s tropical forests have been converted into desert.
The soaring exploitation, including its negative impact on the environment, has a strong correlation with the number of licensing/permits awarded.
The introduction of the 1999 Regional Autonomy Law, subsequently followed by the 1999 Fiscal Balancing Law between the Central and Regional Governments have — to some degree — impacted on the coal licensing regime, where larger authorities had been given to regional/local governments.
Under the new licensing regime by local governments, requirements for coal permits tend to be relaxed whereas monitoring has not been done properly.
As a result, the number of permits (Mining Authorization/KP) has been growing considerably (currently 462, of which 169 are producing), coal production increases, but also environmental problems and the issues of illegal mining exist.
The question of who really owns the KP licenses exists, which was defined as that it can be owned by Indonesian national/companies only.
While the largest part of coal in Indonesia are being produced by large companies (the holders of Coal Contract of Work/PKP2B), some coal is mined by small scale and illegal miners.
It is believed that a significant amount of coal has been produced by illegal miners (some 5 million tons annually) and part has gone to meet export demand.
Wherever in the world, illegal miners lack interest in responsible mining and mine rehabilitation practices. Illegal mining is a problem for potential investors, the environment and government revenues.
The government has introduced measures to crack down on problems, including arresting illegal miners.
However, it cannot be the only solution since illegal mining is actually rooted in underemployment, local poverty and weak law enforcement, while the number of people involved in these activities is quite significant.
An alternative to confrontation to illegal miners by the central government (who awards the large scale PKP2B mining license) should be a cooperative and more comprehensive approach.
“Despite the world’s anxiety of global warming, IEA statistics shows that the world consumption for coal is still growing the fastest among primary energy sources.”
Work together with local/rural governments and communities to reduce poverty, educate/assist the illegal miners to increase their awareness on good mining practices (including mine rehabilitation), provide transition period fiscal incentives to encourage illegal mining toward the regulated mining sector, among others.
It needs to maintain an appropriate balance between the soaring exports of coal (about three quarters of production on average) and the domestic growing demand for the same fuel.
Push for exports is still coming largely from the traditional East Asians (Japan is the largest), while the coal-hungry India and China are also increasing their demand for our coal.
The exports will be competed with by the Blue Print for Energy Management 2005-2025 pointing out that one third of Indonesia’s energy primary energy mix in 2025 is to be supplied by coal, (the current share is about 15 percent).
Even though it is often mentioned that our coal reserves are quite large (current proven reserves of 5.5 billion tons; estimated resources of 105 tones) and that our reserves for coal are much larger than that of oil and gas, we should watch their fast rate of exploitation cautiously.
It needs to recalculate the benefit of exploiting them, taking into account their damage to the environment and what is left post mining. Where have all the revenues from exploiting that coal gone? Is the escalating export not jeopardizing the domestic energy security in the near future?
We have ample experiences, for instance in exploiting the resources-rich Kalimantan. The forests, oil and gas reserves have been exploited for about four to five decades, but it seems that the island has not enjoyed the fruits of the excessive exploitation: the current regional economy remains weak, infrastructure is poor and energy supplies for local uses have not been secured.
It needs to promote the terms “resources balance, depletion, sustainability”, start internalizing the costs of environmental impact and enforce those concepts into workable policies for our coal mining development.
The writer is the senior energy planner and an economist with the National Development Planning Agency. The opinions expressed are his own.
Source: The Jakarta Post ( Hanan Nugroho)
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Thursday, 30 September 10
INDONESIAN COAL FOR POWER PLANT - LANKA GAZETTE
Lanka Gazette reported that, A cargo vessel with coal on board to generate electricity for the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant will arrive in Sri Lank ...
Thursday, 30 September 10
DRY BULK MARKET HEADS SOUTH ONCE MORE WITH MARKET SENTIMENT TAKING A CAUTIOUS APPROACH - HELLENIC SHIPPING
The dry bulk market didn’t manage to maintain the slightly upward momentum it had established during the first two session of the week, with t ...
Wednesday, 29 September 10
MOZAMBIQUE: COAL IN THREE MORE TETE DISTRICTS
All africa reported that, Coal deposits have been confirmed in the districts of Changara, Cahora Bassa and Magoe, in the western Mozambican province ...
Tuesday, 28 September 10
MMTC TO AWARD CONTRACT TO CEPL AND KNOWLEDGE TO SUPPLY 0.835 MILLION TONS OF IMPORTED COAL
COALspot.com: MMTC, India’s state owned trading company has opened three coal purchase tenders today.
According to our market sources, Coas ...
Monday, 27 September 10
DRY BULK: FREIGHT RATES CONTINUE TO FALL ON LOW ACTIVITY - HELLENIC SHIPPING
The dry bulk market didn’t manage to change its fortunes during the past week, with holidays across many Asian countries, predominantly China, ...
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- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Economic Council, Georgia
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Planning Commission, India
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Australian Coal Association
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- White Energy Company Limited
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- The University of Queensland
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- PTC India Limited - India
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
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