Govt calls for investment in coal infrastructure
Monday, June 4 2007 - 03:46 AM WIB
The government is calling on investors to invest in the development of coal transportation infrastructure to cope with rising demand for the fuel.
“I urge companies to invest not only in upstream coal but also infrastructures such as hauling road from mines to ports, sea transport facilities and coal receiving terminal,” Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said when addressing the CoalTrans conference in Bali on Monday.
He said is currently the world’s largest thermal coal exporter with production reaching 170 million tons and exports 126 million tons in 2006.
He predicted the nation’s coal production would reach 240 million tons in 2010 with domestic consumption rising to 90 million tons following the start of the operation of power plants being built under the 10,000 MW crash program.
The government has launched a crash program to build a number of power plants across the country, which are expected to increase the country’s power supplies by 10,000 MW in the next several years. The tendering process of some of the power plants has been completed.
State owned electricity company PT PLN’s deputy director of primary energy Tony Agus Mulyantono told the conference that coal demands from power plants would soar to 76 million tons in 2010 when the power plants built under the crash program start operation from 32 million tons in 2006.
A lot of Indonesian coal deposits are located in the hinterlands of
Several investors have voiced interest to build railway networks in