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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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Tuesday, 15 May 12
POTENTIAL BOOM OF CHINAS COAL IMPORTS COULD PROVIDE FURTHER SUPPORT TO DRY BULK MARKET - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
The dry bulk market has been moving sideways during the past week with the industry’s benchmark, the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) losing 0.53% on th ...
Saturday, 12 May 12
THE SHIPPING MARKET IS UNLIKELY TO SEE A REBOUND ANYTIME SOON - VISTAAR SINGAPORE
COALspot.com - The BDI softened this week and it was down by 1.64 pct closing at 1,138 points.
The cape index was up by 2.41 pct closing at 1,61 ...
Friday, 11 May 12
POLITICAL CHANGES COULD LEAD TO TEMPORARY HALT IN SHIPPING INVESTMENTS - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
The potential of changes of political leadership in many of the world’s leading economies could very well lead to significant shifts in the di ...
Thursday, 10 May 12
DRY BULK ERRATIC ON LACK OF DIRECTION - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
The dry bulk market has kept up its erratic behavior as it went down again during yesterday’s session, on a lack of direct guidance in terms o ...
Wednesday, 09 May 12
COAL INDIA SIGNS FSAS WITH 13 POWER UNITS SO FAR - PTI
Press Trust of India has reported that, coal India has so far entered into fuel supply pacts with 13 power units, including Reliance Power's Rosa P ...
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- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- The University of Queensland
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- PTC India Limited - India
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- White Energy Company Limited
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Parliament of New Zealand
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Australian Coal Association
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Planning Commission, India
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
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