Aussie firm offers new means of transporting Sumatra coal
Thursday, March 18 2004 - 12:11 AM WIB
The method dictates that coal be liquefied and lined with oil before being transmitted via pipeline, group chairman Harold Clough was quoted as saying in Palembang on Monday after meeting with South Sumatra Governor Syahrial Oeman.
Harold said that using the new mode could cut transportation costs by 50 percent.
Currently, trains are the most popular transportation means for transporting coal from Tanjung Enim, one of the country's largest coal centers, to other parts of Sumatra like Kertapati in South Sumatra and Tarahan in Lampung.
Meanwhile, Syahrial said they would carefully study Harold's offer, adding that many parties had expressed interest in developing the Tanjung Api-Api port.
The governor said trains were currently still the most effective means of transporting coal from Tanjung Enim to Kertapati and Tarahan.
In another development, state coal company PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam that operates coalmines in South Sumatra and West Sumatra is studying the possibility of transporting its coal via railway from Kertapati to Tanjung
Api-Api.
A consortium of PT Transcoal Nusantara and PT Trimitra Adiyasa has completed a preliminary feasibility study to build canal for transporting coal from Tanjungenim.
The canal was planned to link Tanjungenim coalmines to the Musi Banyuasin River, through which coal will be carried to a port on Bangka Island off eastern Sumatra. (*)