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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, 23 March 13
WORLD COAL TRADE FIRST PASSES 1 BILLION TONS IN 2012 - VEREIN DER KOHLENIMPORTEURE E.V
Press Release: Hard coal imports to Germany on the previous year's level in spite of regenerative energies. Imports for power plants at an all-time ...
Thursday, 21 March 13
HANDY : RBCT ROUNDS FIXED AT $ 9000 + 300K BB - FEARNRESEARCH
Handy
The Atlantic market remains firm with cargoes seen to support healthy rates as per last week. The USG-Feast was at USD 25k and Black Sea-Feas ...
Wednesday, 20 March 13
NTPC TO IMPORT SEVEN MILLION TONS COAL FOR FOUR MONTHS
COALspot.com : NTPC Limited (formerly National Thermal Power Corporation) is the largest Indian state-owned electric utilities company has awarded&n ...
Tuesday, 19 March 13
CHINA GAS PRICE REFORMS AND APAC GAS PRICING - FITCH STREET VIEW
Fitch Ratings says pricing reform in the Chinese gas sector is unlikely to materially impact gas distributors' margins, and low gas prices in the U ...
Tuesday, 19 March 13
NEWCASTLE COAL EXPORTS FALL BY 4.27 PERCENT ON WEEK
COALspot.com - Newcastle port in Australia has loaded 2,365,561 MT of thermal and coking coal for week ended 0700 hours 18 March 2013, Newcast ...
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- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Australian Coal Association
- Planning Commission, India
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- The University of Queensland
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- White Energy Company Limited
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- PTC India Limited - India
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
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