Bahlil Warns Coal Entrepreneurs Who Don't Keep Their Downstream Promise

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Bahlil Lahadalia, collects a downstream promise made by coal entrepreneurs.

According to him, until now a number of coal entrepreneurs have not fulfilled their commitment to building downstream facilities according to the agreement in extending business licenses.

In fact, he said, downstreaming was the main requirement when applying for an extension of the Coal Mining Concession Work Agreement (PKP2B).

"The main condition for our PKP2B to extend one of the requirements is to build downstreaming. I see that there is no one yet," said Bahlil, quoted on Tuesday, November 26.

He reminded coal entrepreneurs to immediately comply with the agreement that had been made to increase the added value of coal.

The reason is, when the agreement was made he was still serving as Minister of Investment/Head of BKPM, and currently he has served as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources who has the authority to directly review the implementation of the downstreaming.

"Be careful because of the agreement with you at that time I signed the IUP while still at the Ministry of Investment. Well, Alhamdulillah Allah sent me to enter the ESDM," he said.

He has also complained about the lack of downstream coal to President Prabowo Subianto.

In his report, Bahlil said that domestic coal production has reached 776 million tons.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's coal exports are known to reach 600 million tons, but coal downstream products are still very minimal.

"At that time I conveyed to Mr. President Prabowo, I said, "Sir, in China coal, almost everything is produced downstream, almost all of us. We are 776 tons, what we export is around 600 tons, but the downstream product is still very small", said Bahlil.