Philippines Urges Indonesia to Reverse Coal Export Ban

TheIndonesia.id - The Philippines have urged the Indonesian government to lift the recent ban on coal export since the country relies heavily on the commodity as main source of energy.

As reported by Antara on Monday, January 10, Philippines’ secretary of energy Alfonso Cusi said the policy potentially results in massive disruption to national economy.

Cusi sent a letter addressed to Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif through the Philippines’ department of foreign affairs as well as requesting the state agency to become an intermediary and formally deliver the request to the Indonesian government through ASEAN cooperation mechanism.

Earlier this month, Indonesia announced that it “temporarily bans” coal export from January 1 to 31, 2022, as it looks to fulfill national supply for power plants.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources deemed the step urgent as millions of customers in Indonesia will be at the risk of experiencing outage.

Upon the ban, coal price surged in China and Australian last week, as coal-carrying ships bound for countries like Japan, China, South Korea, and India are stuck in Kalimantan amid uncertainty.

The Philippines, meanwhile, continues to depend on coal as their main source of energy, and the country also relies on Indonesia for its coal supply, beside Australia and Vietnam.

In 2020, almost 70 percent of 42.5 million tons of coal in the country were imported.

Senator Win Gatchalian who leads the Senate’s committee of energy has also called on the department of energy to prepare emergency measures to respond to the coal export ban, including to look for other potential suppliers.