Indonesia hopes to cooperate with China to develop downstream coal industry

The Indonesian government has proposed to China to develop and increase the value added to coal (PNT) through a project that President Joko is proud of, that is, to move downstream in the form of other products, such as coal quality improvement (coal upgrading), coal briquetting, coking and coal liquefaction.The proposal was made directly by the Acting Director General of Mines and Coal at the 7th Indonesia China Energy Forum (ICEF) in Bali on Tuesday (September 3rd).This proposal is part of Indonesia's commitment to reduce the greenhouse effect target of national development when it ratified the Paris Agreement through Law No. 16 of 2016, which it signed, and the gradual reduction of coal consumption and the development of other forms is a concrete step towards achieving this goal. One of the policies to manage coal is to reduce its use with the termination of coal-fired power plants and develop it into other forms, especially natural gas, to meet the needs of other chemical industries such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fertilizers. In order to accelerate the coal downstream and PNT program, the government has proposed to various parties to enable the program to work as expected, and they have invested in developing the coal downstream industry in Indonesia in the form of methanol, dimethyl ether, and other forms.

Coal can be processed into derivative products, both as an industrial raw material and as an energy source. The six coal development products that can currently be implemented are coal quality improvement, coal type, coke, coal liquefaction and coal gasification (including underground coal gasification). To support the accelerated development of the program, in addition to providing three incentives, the government requires the extension of the coal mining concession work agreement (PKP2B) into a special mining operation license (IUPK), which commercial entities must submit to plan the development and/or utilization of coal. There are currently six IUPKs that plan to develop coal into natural gas, fertilizer, and coke, with economic studies and feasibility studies underway, and hopefully will be ready for production by 2030. Indonesia currently has coal resources of 97.29 billion tons and reserves of 31.71 billion tons, of which poor quality coal accounts for 701 TP3T of the total resources, while the remaining 301 TP3T is high and medium quality coal. Most of the resources and reserves are distributed in East Kalimantan, South Sumatra, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and Jambi. The rest is distributed in Jambi, Riau, North Kalimantan, Aceh, Punggulu, West Sumatra and Papua, West Sulawesi, and West Java.