PTBA says never reduces coal supplies to Suralaya power plant
Friday, May 25 2001 - 06:30 AM WIB
State coal mining company PT Bukit Asam (PTBA) has said it never reduces the supplies of coal to coal-powered Suralaya power plant in West Java as stipulated in their coal purchase contract, according to PTBA president R.A. Sunardi.
Speaking at a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission VIII on energy and mining on recently, Sunardi said that according to the contract, PTBA would supply a total of 6.22 million tons of coal to Suralaya plant in 2001, or 56.5 percent of Suralaya's total need of 11 million tons.
"Based on data, since January through March 2001, coal supplies from PTBA to Suralaya power plant had never been reduced even one ton," he said.
His statement dismissed speculation that PTBA had reduced coal supplies to Suralaya, that prompted the latter to stop the operation of some of its power generation units, and thus reducing power supplies to the Java-Bali system.
Sunardi explained that coal contracts with Suralaya consisted of two packages, one package was to supply coal to Suralaya's power generation units 1 through 4, and the other package was to supply coal to units 5 through 7.
He noted that the contract to supply coal to unit 1 through 4 had actually expired in Dec. 2000. But as the negotiation between PTBA and PT Indonesia Power, the owner of Suralaya power plant, over the new contract stalled, they agreed to make an addendum to the old contract. The first addendum expired in March, and as the negotiation still failed, the addendum was extended till June.
"So, for units 1 to 4, we rely on the addendum only," Sunardi said.
He noted that the negotiations failed to reach an agreement because each party stayed in their positions, especially in the pricing of the coal. PTBA argued that the price in the old contract of Rp 155,000 (US$ = Rp. 11,400) per ton was too cheap, considering that it represented only 66 percent of coal prices in Asian market, with rupiah's exchange rate of Rp 8,500 against the U.S. dollar.
He said PTBA wanted the price be adjusted, and demanded Indonesia Power, a subsidiary of state electricity company PT PLN, to pay Rp 210,000 per ton of coal. And still, it would represent only 71 percent of benchmark coal prices in Asian market. (*)