Antara News·Indonesia·Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 09:01 AM

ESDM Ministry readies E. Kalimantan, S. Sumatra for coal-to-fuel hubs

Translate

Putu Indah Savitri, Yashinta Difa

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry is preparing East Kalimantan and South Sumatra to serve as central hubs for coal-to-fuel projects designed to convert low-calorie coal into fuel blends, including gasoline and diesel.

"Several projects are underway in East Kalimantan; initial work has already begun. We are also pushing for similar activities in South Sumatra and other regions with significant coal potential," Deputy ESDM Minister Yuliot stated in Jakarta on Tuesday.

A key cornerstone of the initiative is a National Strategic Project located at the Batuta Chemical Industrial Park (BCIP) in East Kutai District, East Kalimantan, where groundbreaking was recently conducted.

The project centers on coal gasification to produce methanol, which will subsequently be utilized as a raw material for synthetic fuel blending.

"Methanol can be used for fuel blending," Yuliot emphasized.

The initiative aligns with directives issued by President Prabowo Subianto, who stressed the necessity of national energy and food self-sufficiency to ensure economic independence.

Addressing an audience at the Gontor Islamic boarding school in Ponorogo, East Java, on Sept. 19, President Prabowo underscored plans to produce gasoline from domestic coal following the successful processing of palm oil into diesel and gasoline.

"We have successfully produced diesel from palm oil and are capable of producing gasoline from palm oil. We will also produce gasoline from coal," the president stated.

Responding to the directive, ESDM Minister Bahlil Lahadalia affirmed his office's readiness to carry out the conversion program.

"We will follow up on every order and directive from the President regarding optimization efforts to enhance energy security by utilizing domestic energy sources," Lahadalia said earlier.

The ESDM Ministry highlighted that coal liquefaction—commonly known as coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology—is already established globally.

It referred to Germany's historic use of CTL to fuel tanks and South Africa's ongoing operations through Sasol, which yields approximately 300,000 barrels per day.

View the original on Antara News →

KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.