Sekawan teams up with ProCone GmbH in coal gasification project
Wednesday, August 20 2014 - 12:55 AM WIB
IDX-listed PT Sekawan Intipratama Tbk is set to start its coal gasification project by building an ethanol plant near its coal mine in West Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan.
The company on Tuesday signed an agreement with Switzerland-based ProCone GmbH, appointing the latter as EPC contractor for the planned ethanol plant that would have annual production capacity of 480,000 tons.
?We plan to begin ground-breaking in January of 2015,? said President Commissioner of Sekawan Intipratama, Rennier A.R. Latief. The plant is expected to start operation in December of 2016.
Total investment for the plant is between 500-700 million euro, Rennier said, adding that about 70 percent of the funding requirement will come from ProCone, which has received support from Swiss and German banks.
Rennier said that Sekawan is open to new investors to help finance the remaining 30 percent fund requirement for the ethanol plant project, seen as a future major source of revenue for the company given the current declining trend in coal prices, while domestic market potential for ethanol is huge.
Sekawan has recently acquired RITS Ventures Ltd, which holds majority ownership of West Kutai, East Kalimantan-based coal miner PT Indowana Bara Mining Coal.
Rennier said that about 60 hectares of the land requirement for the planned ethanol plant, to be built near the Indowana concession, has been acquired.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak