The Urgency of a Follow-up Presidential Regulation on Coal Downstreaming

PT Bukit Asam (“PTBA”) hopes that the government will immediately finalize a number of regulations related to the continued development of coal downstreaming into Dimethyl Ether (“DME”) products. President Director of PTBA Arsal Ismail said that his party is currently still waiting for regulatory support for DME development, particularly a Regulation of the President (“Regulation”) to overcome the economic challenges of this project.

“There have been no further updates on the Regulation and its implementing regulations for DME development,” explained Arsal.

PTBA has conducted economic studies on the feasibility of DME pricing as a coal downstream product. According to him, regulatory support is needed to address the economic challenges of this project. Currently, the company is actively communicating with a number of relevant ministries/institutions to obtain regulatory support for the continuation of the coal downstreaming project into DME.

“We are also continuing to maintain intensive coordination with various stakeholders such as the Downstreaming Task Force (“Taskforce”) the Ministry of State Secretariat, the Ministry of Industry, and other relevant institutions to obtain the guidance and policy support we need,” he added.