Energy Ministry: Indonesia's Coal Reserves Estimated to Last About 65 Years
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27 July 2021 09:45 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry’s Mineral and Coal Director-General Ridwan Djamaluddin said Indonesia still has large coal reserves of 38.84 billion tons.
“We still have about 60 to 65 years to go of our [coal] reserves,” said Ridwan in the ministry’s virtual discussion on Monday, July 26, 2021.
The time was calculated based on the production rate of 600 million tons per year.
Kalimantan holds most of the total reserves at 24.84 billion tons or 62.11 percent, followed by Sumatra at 12.96 billion tons or 37.70 percent.
“This is a huge potential that inevitably remains Indonesia’s mainstay in providing affordable energy,” Ridwan said.
One of the government’s current efforts, he added, is to encourage the use of coal in a cleaner fashion. “The intentions are good. But there are at least two challenges as we already know.”
The first challenge is technology exploitation. The second challenge is the economics of implementing it.
“These are huge challenges that the value-added coal project downstream that we have pushed until now is still running at a speed that has not met our expectations,” said Ridwan.
Read: Indonesia to Gradually Shut Down Coal-fired Power Plants
HENDARTYO HANGGI
