Litbang, JCOAL offers Bumi Resources to build coal liquefaction plant

The Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and Japanese research agency Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL) are proposing to do a feasibilty study for the coal-to-liquid project owned by coal firm PT Bumi Resources.

Agency head Nenny Sri Utami said on Tuesday that using Japanese technology, Bumi would be able to produce around 12,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil from 3,000 tons of coal.

The agency, which is better locally known as "litbang", has been cooperating with JCOAL in several projects in the country.

?Litbang and JCOAL have selected three alternative locations for the project, which are Berau regency in East Kalimantan, Bangko in South Sumatra and Muriah in South Kalimantan,? Nenny added.

Bumi earlier said it would use South African firm Sasol SA's technology to develop its coal-to-liquid project. However, Sasol has said there isn't yet any agreement between both firms allowing Bumi to use its technology.

Nenny said that both agencies are still caculating the estimate costs of the project if Bumi uses Japanese technology.

She noted however that if Bumi used Sasol?s technology, the project would need around US$2.4 billion of investment. Sasol?s technology will enable Bumi to produce 55,000 barrels crude synthetic oil from about 12,000 tons of coal per day, while production cost is estimated at between $23 and $29 per barrel. (godang)