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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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Saturday, 27 September 14
OIL MARKET CONTANGO: SPECULATION ON FUTURE PRICES CAN BE A RISKY MOVE, EVEN FOR TANKER OWNERS HELLENIC SHIPPING NEWS
Despite the fact that tanker owners can easily use their vessels as floating storage units for oil, in a bid to exploit the current oil market dyna ...
Saturday, 27 September 14
MORE COAL MINERS AGREE TO AMEND CONTRACTS - THE JAKARTA POST
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is in a rush to beat a deadline for the conclusion of numerous memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with t ...
Friday, 26 September 14
INDIA SUPREME COURT RULING TO HIT STEEL, UTILITY EARNINGS, SAYS FITCH
COALspot.com: The 24 September Supreme Court of India (SCI) decision to cancel almost every coal block allocation since 1993 will have a negative f ...
Friday, 26 September 14
U.S WEEKLY COAL PRODUCTION FELL 1.8% WEEK OVER WEEK, SAYS EIA
COALspot.com – United States the world's one of largest coal producers, produced approximately 18.80 million short tons (mmst) of c ...
Friday, 26 September 14
ORACLE SIGNS EPC FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT WITH SEPCO FOR COAL MINE AND POWER PLANT IN PAKISTAN
COALspot.com: Oracle Coalfields PLC, the UK developer of a lignite coal mine and power plant in the south-eastern Sindh Province, Pakistan, has ann ...
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- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Australian Coal Association
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Planning Commission, India
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- The University of Queensland
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- PTC India Limited - India
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- White Energy Company Limited
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
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