The Location Of The DME Project Will Be Decided Next Month, Bahlil: This December It Will Be Decided

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bahlil Lahadalia (Photo: Doc. VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia revealed that the location of the coal downstream project to dimethyl ether (DME) will be decided in December 2025.

Bahlil said he had held a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto and. CEO of Danantara, Rosan Perkasa Roeslani to discuss the location of the construction of this gasification project.

"Yesterday, a meeting with the President with Mr. Rosan, in December the locations will be decided," said Bahlil, quoted on Wednesday, November 12.

He continued, if the location has been set by the end of this year, the food for the construction of the DME project will begin in 2026.

Bahlil explained, the construction of the DME project is quite urgent to do considering that domestic LPG needs are increasing from year to year.

He projects that LPG consumption in 2026 will increase to 10 million tons. Meanwhile, national production only ranges from 1.3 to 1.4 million tons per year. Moreover, the petrochemical factory PT Lotte Chemical Indonesia (LCI) requires an LPG of 1.2 million tons for its production needs.

"Like it or not, we have to substitute for imports, what is the method? DME," Bahlil explained.

The government is indeed working on the discourse of replacing LPG to DME. This is done in order to reduce people's dependence on LPG gas. In this way, LPG imports are expected to be more suppressed in the future.

The government through the Investment Management Agency (BPI) Daya Anagata Nusantara (Dantara) is ready to downstream coal through gasification into dimethyl ether (DME).Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) as well as Head of the National Energy Downstream and Resilience Acceleration Task Force Bahlil Lahadalia officially submitted the Pre-Study Feasibility document to Danantara CEO Rosan Roeslani. In the document, there are 18 projects with 8 of them being downstreamed in the mineral and coal sectors.

For coal downstreaming, gasification to DME will be carried out in six regions of Indonesia, namely Bulungan, East Kutai, Kota Baru, Muara Enim, Pali, and Banyuasin.