[Kabar-indonesia] 20m tons of national coal output unreported in past few yrs: RI official

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

Indonesia says 20 mln tons of national 
coal output unreported in past few yrs

JAKARTA, July 20 (XFN-ASIA) - Indonesia's annual coal output data over
the past few years missed some 20 mln tons of unreported output,
according to Mangantar Marpaung, director for coal and geothermal
development at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

The country reported a total coal output of 55 mln tons in 2005.

Marpaung said since regional governments were allowed to grant coal
concessions in 2001, a number of local governments had failed to
report their output to the central government.

'It has been difficult for us to get the coal output data as well as
the number of concessions that have been issued by the regions,' he
told reporters, adding that missing coal output data were mostly from
central Sumatra and south Kalimantan.

He said data loopholes could at some point cause an oversupply
situation which could, in turn, trigger a fall in coal prices.

He said for now, the coal price remains firm at around 40-42 usd per
ton because of rising oil prices and the planned acceleration of power
projects that will require massive coal supplies.

But incomplete data can distort supply and demand stability, he said.
He cited the market for tin, where an imbalance between demand and
supply has sparked a price drop.

Indonesia is the world's largest tin producer. One risk it has found
hard to control is the prevalence of illegal mining operations, which
has tended to skew supply levels due to unchecked output.

He said to overcome the situation, the government plans to issue
regulations to sanction regional governments who fail to report their
output data.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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