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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, 05 January 12
DRY BULK MARKET TAKES A PLUNGE OF LOW ACTIVITY - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
As was widely expected the first days of the new year are characterized by significantly low chartering across the board of the dry bulk market, pus ...
Wednesday, 04 January 12
NEWBUILDING ORDERS PICKED UP IN 2011, BUT 2012 EXPECTED TO BE A DIFFERENT STORY - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
With the BDI (Baltic Dry Index) starting the year on a sour note, losing 114 points and ending yesterday’s session, the first of the new year, ...
Wednesday, 04 January 12
MAHAGENCO TO IMPORT LOW MOISTURE COAL
COALspot.com - Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd. is the state power generation utility owned by Government of Maharashtra, intends to proc ...
Tuesday, 03 January 12
INDONESIA COAL REFERENCE PRICE FELL AGAIN
COALspot.com - Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia has sets the January 2012 coal reference price at US$ 109.29 per ton or US$ 3.3 ...
Tuesday, 03 January 12
WHICH WAY WILL THE DRY BULK MARKET HEAD ON FIRST WEEK OF THE YEAR? - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
Dry bulk ship owners will be wondering which way will the BDI (Baltic Dry Index), the industry’s benchmark, will head during the first days of ...
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- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- Economic Council, Georgia
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- White Energy Company Limited
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Parliament of New Zealand
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Australian Coal Association
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- The University of Queensland
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- PTC India Limited - India
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Planning Commission, India
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
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