Indonesia Power? coal stockpile gets thinner
Thursday, January 29 2004 - 04:48 AM WIB
?Currently, our coal stockpile has dropped to only enough for six days' operation due to supply problems from (state-owned coal miner) PTBA,? Indonesia Power?s president Firdaus Akmal said Thursday.
?The stockpile will further drop to a level enough only for two days' operation in February, if PTBA cannot fulfill its obligation,? Firdaus said.
PTBA?s president Ismet Harmaini confirmed on Wednesday that the firm still needed to send around 200,000 tons of coal to Indonesia Power to meet its supply obligation to the firm up until January.
PTBA transports its coal from its coalmine in South Sumatra to Tarahan port in Lampung by train, from which the coal is then shipped to Suralaya. However, PTBA has been experiencing difficulties in transporting the coal following a derailment accident on the South Sumatra-Tarahan railway in December last year.
?Despite that the railway has been running at normal capacity, we still need to deliver an additional coal supply to Indonesia Power,? Ismet said
Ismet said PTBA had planned to make a swap deal with a coal producer in South Kalimantan allowing the latter to fulfill its supply obligation to Indonesia Power. ?But this (coal) company is also facing transportation problem due to flood in their area,? Ismet added.
PTBA operates two mining units located respectively in Tanjung Enim (South Sumatra) and Sawah Lunto (West Sumatra). Under a 10-year contract, it is obligated to supply around 6.1 million tons of coal annually to Suralaya. (alex/godang)