• Sarulla Geothermal Project Indonesia: Inpex Corp Joins Consortium

    Inpex Corporation, a leading Japanese oil & gas exploration and production firm, announced today that it agreed to take part in the 330-megawatt Sarulla Geothermal Power Project in North Sumatra (Indonesia), the world’s largest single-contract geothermal power project. Inpex Corp acquired a 49 percent stake in a local unit of Medco Power Indonesia. As such, Inpex Corp’s participation in the project is indirect. Parent company Medco Power Indonesia owns a 37.5 percent stake in the Sarulla project.

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  • Coal Mining Industry Indonesia: Troubled Licenses & Falling Prices

    The government of Indonesia is eager to use current low coal prices as the context to push for consolidation in the country’s coal mining sector. Sudirman Said, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, announced that the government may revoke over 4,000 troubled mining licenses this month and install a better licensing system. Licenses that may be revoked are Mining Business Permits (IUPs), not the long-standing Coal Contracts of Work (PKP2B) that are held by companies such as Bumi Resources and Berau Coal Energy.

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  • Stocks and Rupiah Update Indonesia: A Vicious Downward Spiral?

    Both Indonesian stocks and the rupiah continued to slide on Thursday (04/06) and seem to be caught in a vicious downward spiral brought about by both domestic and international factors. Indonesia’s benchmark stock index (Jakarta Composite Index) fell 0.68 percent to close at a five-week low of 5,095.82 points, while the rupiah depreciated 0.39 percent to IDR 13,281 per US dollar (Bloomberg Dollar Index), a level last seen in the late 1990s when the country was plagued by the Asian Financial Crisis.

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  • Regulatory Uncertainty Plagues Indonesia’s Mining Sector Again

    One of the weak points of Indonesia, one that seriously hurts the country’s investment climate as well as foreign confidence, is regulatory uncertainty. In 2009 the government of Indonesia introduced Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (New Mining Law) which caused a shock in Indonesia’s natural resources sector as it includes several new policies that make investors think twice before investing in Indonesia as the consequences of these new policies are far-reaching. However, a possible new amendment to the law causes new concern.

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