On 20 December 2015, Indonesia Investments released the latest edition of its newsletter. This free newsletter, which is sent to our subscribers once per week, contains the most important news stories from Indonesia that have been reported on our website over the last seven days. Most of the topics involve economic matters such as updates on the performance of Indonesian stocks and the rupiah, Indonesia's interest rate environment, the trade balance, the country's energy mix, updates of the performance of listed companies, and more.

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Indonesia will most likely abandon its plans to establish four nuclear plants (with a combined capacity of 6 GW) by 2025. Sudirman Said, Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, recently said there are plenty of alternatives - especially renewable energy - in Indonesia to meet the government's target of 136.7 GW of power capacity by 2025 and 430 GW by the year 2050. Nuclear power is controversial due to health risks, environmental damage and nuclear proliferation (when used as a weapon). The nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011 highlighted the risks of tapping nuclear power.

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Per 4 December 2015 Indonesia officially rejoined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), seven years after the country had voluntarily exited the organization as it had turned in to a net oil importer. On the 168th meeting of the OPEC, held in Vienna (Austria), OPEC President (and Nigeria's Oil Minister) Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu welcomed Indonesia back into the organization. At the meeting Indonesia was represented by Indonesian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said.

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The government of Indonesia will tender three geothermal energy projects in October 2015. These three projects are the Way Ratai (South Sumatra), Bukit Kili (West Sumatra), and Marana (Central Sulawesi) fields. Indonesia is estimated to contain about 40 percent of the world’s geothermal reserves and therefore entails great potential for this energy source. However, Southeast Asia’s largest economy only utilizes approximately 4.7 percent (1,403 megawatts) of its total geothermal capacity (29,475 megawatts).

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Through capital injections the Indonesian government aims to enhance the role of various state-owned enterprises (SOEs) within the process of economic development. In the recently unveiled 2016 State Budget draft, which still requires approval from Indonesia’s House of Representatives, the government allocated a total of IDR 48.2 trillion (approx. USD $3.6 billion) to 24 SOEs in five priority sectors: food security, infrastructure & maritime development, energy security, strategic industry development, and national economic autonomy.

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After having delisted its shares from the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2007, Mitra Energi Persada relisted 212 billion shares (approximately 11.6 percent of the company’s equity) on the IDX on Monday (04/05). The relisting was a success. Shares of the company, traded under the ticker KOPI, rose almost 50 percent to IDR 590. Mitra Energi Persada was originally established as an e-commerce company but later shifted its business to the energy sector. The company is a trader of natural gas, coal and oil.

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The current account deficit of Indonesia, which is expected to have improved slightly from 3.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 to about 3 percent of GDP in 2014, is forecast to continue to improve in 2015 hence placing less pressures on the rupiah exchange rate and the economy in general. A wide current account deficit makes the country vulnerable to capital outflows in times of global shocks (for example looming higher US interest rates) as the deficit signals that Indonesia relies on foreign funding.

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Coal exports from Indonesia are expected to decline in the remainder of 2014 as the Indonesian government implemented a new licensing system for domestic coal miners - the ‘Listed Exporter’ status (Indonesian: Eksportir Terdaftar, ET) - per 1 October 2014 in an effort to optimize monitoring of the coal mining industry (illegal coal shipments from Indonesia form a structural problem). This new legal framework has led to confusion among miners causing that not all miners have been able to obtain the necessary status to resume coal shipments.

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Fully state-owned energy company Pertamina announced that it has raised the selling price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by 23 percent in an effort to cut losses from subsidized gas sales. The company said that it incurred losses of IDR 2.5 to 3.0 trillion in the first half of 2014 as a result of 12 kilogram LPG canisters sales. These LPG sales are heavily subsidized as the government determines a fixed price, below the market value. However, the government does not reimburse this difference in selling price and market value.

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Indonesia’s House of Representatives (DPR) passed an important geothermal bill in a plenary session on Tuesday (26/08). This new bill is expected to be a great leap in the development of geothermal power in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Indonesia contains the world's largest geothermal energy reserves. However the country only uses a small fraction of this geothermal potential. Meanwhile, amid robust economic growth, the country is in serious need to provide more electricity and power to its people and businesses.

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In March 2022 Indonesia’s fully state-owned electricity company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) announced that it decided to team up with the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement), which is a public financial institution that is focused on implementing policies defined by the French Government with the aim to fight poverty and promote sustainable development, to jointly develop a wind energy plant with a capacity of 200 megawatt (MW) in Pandeglang (in Banten). This project is called the Banten Wind Farm Power Development.

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Energy is certainly the ‘thing’ to watch in the years, well decades, ahead. Amid heavy political pressures from the West, the world is heading for an unprecedented energy transition in which fossil fuels are going to be replaced by renewable energy sources. This is certainly great news for the environment (but whether the energy transition can ease, let alone stop, climate change – which is cited as the goal of this transition – seems iffy though).

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Currently, coal certainly ranks among the most interesting commodities. On the one hand, Indonesia expressed its commitment to reduce consumption of this dirty fossil fuel (that is especially used as raw material for the generation of electricity in power plants but also in various manufacturing industries such as the cement industry and textile industry) as the country seeks to become ‘carbon neutral’ by 2060 (although many doubt to what extent Indonesia is really committed to this ambition; after all, it has more immediate concerns such as the dozens of millions of Indonesians living below, and just above, the national poverty threshold).

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The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry of Indonesia has recently been making efforts to encourage the development of solar energy around this vast Archipelago. On 20 August 2021 it issued Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Regulation No. 26 of 2021 on Solar Rooftop Connected to the Grid of Power Supply Business License for Public Interest Holders (henceforth: Regulation 26/2021).

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Besides the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, another big news story in March 2020 was the massive decline of global crude oil prices. Not only is the price of oil under pressure because of the enormous slowdown in economic activity as various governments have imposed restrictions (such as travel bans) in an attempt to curb the further spread of the coronavirus, but there also emerged big tensions between some of the world’s biggest oil producers that led to tumbling oil prices.

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Shares of Perusahaan Gas Negara, the largest natural gas transportation and distribution company in Indonesia, are showing spectacular growth in 2018. On Tuesday (23/01) the company's shares surged 8.91 percent to IDR 2,690 a piece. So far this year, its shares have grown a whopping 53.71 percent. What is the story behind this spectacular performance?

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Amid rising mining commodity prices, Indonesian coal mining company Adaro Energy saw its share price surge at the start of 2018. The mining index is actually the best-performing index so far this year in Indonesia, rising 13.58 percent since the start of the year. Being a mining company - or more precisely an energy company (as it recently entered the power generation sector) - Adaro Energy is among the major beneficiaries.

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Chandra Asri Petrochemical, one of Indonesia's largest petrochemical companies, is busy with (at least) four projects that should boost the company's performance in the future. The four projects involve the expansion of its butadiene plant, development of a synthetic butadiene rubber plant, development of a coal gasification plant, and expansion of its second petrochemical plant.

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Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd (MHPS), the Japan-based manufacturer of thermal power generation systems, started construction on the Cirebon Coal-Fired Power Plant Expansion Project in Indonesia's West Java province.

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As Indonesia is increasingly focusing on renewable energy sources, the potential of geothermal power in Indonesia is usually in the spotlight. However, the potential of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is seldom mentioned, while it is estimated that Indonesia's OTEC potential is around 41,000 megawatt (MW), among the biggest worldwide.

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