Tanjung Jati B to lease vessels to transport coal
Thursday, March 29 2007 - 05:00 AM WIB
Company general manager Afianto Hapsoro told Petromindo.Com the company planned to lease two Panamax-size vessels to transport its coal starting from 2008 for the power plant that has two power units each with the capacity of 660 Megawatt.
?Until now, the coal is transported through CIF scheme. Thus, it?s suppliers that choose the vessels. In future, we want to transport the coal by ourselves (through FOB scheme),? Afianto told Petromindo.
He said the company?s decision to lease vessels come amid worries that there would be huge demand for such transportation means in the future when coal fired power plants of the 10,000 MW crash program project have been built and start operation.
State owned electricity firm PT PLN has signed contracts with EPC contractors and independent power producers (IPP) to build a number of power plants to increase the national power generation capacity by 10,000 MW in several years to come.
The government has issued a presidential decree to oblige the transportation of goods inside Indonesia using Indonesian-flagged vessels. The Ministry of Transportation has given until 2010 for foreign ships to transport coal within Indonesia.
?It?s not easy to find Indonesian-flagged vessels. There are only Arpeni (publicly-listed PT Arpeni Pratama Ocean Line Tbk) and few others,? Afianto said.
He dismissed rumors that the company had chosen one company to provide the vessels, saying no decision had been made regarding the matter.
Tanjung Jati B needs 4 million tons of coal per year and the company has signed supply contracts with coal miners PT Kaltim Prima Coal and PT Berau Coal, both located in East Kalimantan. (Godang)