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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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Wednesday, 18 July 12
SHIP PRICES HAVE FALLEN RAPIDLY THIS YEAR, FAVORING INVESTORS - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
The price for a 5 year old Capesize dry bulk carrier of 172,000 dwt has fallen to about $33,4mil from $42.9 at the end of June 2011, while at end of ...
Saturday, 14 July 12
FREIGHT MARKET SEEMS TO BE QUITE VOLATILE - VISTAAR
COALspot.com - The market seems to be quite volatile with the trend changing almost every week. This week all the segments were down except for Pana ...
Friday, 13 July 12
TRANSCOAL MINERGY HAS RECEIVED PMA STATUS IN INDONESIA
COALspot.com - PT Transcoal Minergy (“TCM”) has received official foreign owned company status from the Capital Investment Coordinating ...
Thursday, 12 July 12
LACK OF CAPESIZE DEMAND DRAGS DRY BULK MARKET LOWER - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
A lack of demand for the larger Capesize dry bulk carriers had as a result the fall of the industry’s benchmark, the BDI (Baltic Dry Index), w ...
Thursday, 12 July 12
RIO TINTO'S SENIOR MANAGEMENT CHANGES
COALspot.com - Rio Tinto is making changes to its senior management team as chief financial officer (CFO) Guy Elliott has decided to retire at the e ...
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- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- MS Steel International - UAE
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Planning Commission, India
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- White Energy Company Limited
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- PTC India Limited - India
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- The University of Queensland
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Australian Coal Association
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
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