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Indonesia has allowed 171 miners to restart
coal exports since a ban was imposed at New Year to secure domestic supply,
while the compliance of hundreds more miners is still being assessed, an
advisor to the energy minister said on Thursday.
The world's biggest thermal coal exporter
shocked global markets by abruptly announcing the month-long suspension due to
the failure of local miners to meet quotas for supplies to the domestic market.
A Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) requires
them to sell a quarter of their output locally, at a price no higher than $70/t
for power generators. There are about 600 mining companies in Indonesia.
The advisor, Irwandy Arif, said the 171
miners had either met the DMO, or had fallen short and had agreed to pay
penalties.
"Currently, the DMO must absolutely be
met by every coal mining business license holder and is an important
requirement for business entities to be able to export," Irwandy told an
online seminar.
A new regulation on DMO compliance took
effect Jan. 19, requiring monthly reporting and warning of fines, suspensions
and scope for license revocation.
At Thursday's seminar, senior ministry
official Ridwan Djamaludin said the ban would remain in force until January 31,
but did not say what would happen after.
He said Indonesia had recognised the
importance of easing it in some cases, after at least eight countries reached
out to the government during January requesting the ban be lifted.
"We don't want them feel that doing
business with Indonesia is uncertain, so when the ships were ready to leave and
they have been paid for, they were prioritised," he said.
"We do try to maintain balance."
The chief of State utility Perusahaan
Listrik Negara (PLN) on Wednesday said February's coal supply had been secured
and there would be no repeat of the crisis that came close to causing major
power outages.