Indonesia reshuffles cabinet, names new energy minister
Outgoing Indonesian president Joko Widodo has reshuffled the cabinet and replaced the country's energy minister today, just weeks before he is due to leave office.
Bahlil Lahadalia will replace Arifin Tasrif as the minister of energy and mineral resources. Bahlil was previously Indonesia's minister of investment. Joko will remain in office until October, after which current defence minister Prabowo Subianto will take over. Prabowo claimed victory in the country's presidential elections in February. His running mate was Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Joko's son.
It remains to be seen whether the change will affect the country's energy policy, but Bahlil said he would continue with the steps that Arifin has taken to increase oil lifting.
Indonesia has so far remained firmly focused on fossil fuels, despite its net zero by 2060 target. The country is targeting oil production of 1mn b/d and gas production of 12bn ft³/d (123.6bn m³/yr) by 2030, and the energy and mineral resources ministry ESDM has in recent weeks announced strategies to achieve these ambitious targets. Some of these strategies involve increasing production from existing fields by reactivating 1,000-1,500 idle wells, increasing the recovery rate from existing wells, and accelerating new projects.
But Prabowo in the run-up to the elections stated that he aims to reduce Indonesia's fossil fuel dependency, and for Indonesian state-owned utility PLN to increase the proportion of renewable energy in its power supply.
Indonesia banned nickel exports from 1 January 2020 and bauxite exports from 2023, leading to a boom in its downstream processing industry. The country has since emerged as the world's top processed nickel supplier, adding an estimated 1.17mn t of production during 2021-23, according to Australian bank Macquarie's research arm.
The export ban has also led to an increase in Chinese investment in Indonesia's nickel sector, with the increasing concentration of Chinese-backed Indonesian supply emerging as a key challenge as the US and EU look to reduce their dependence on other countries for critical raw materials.
But the increase in supply has pressured prices. French mining group Eramet and Germany-based global chemicals producer BASF announced in June that they are no longer pursuing investment in a nickel-cobalt refining complex in Weda Bay, Indonesia because of the downturn in prices.
Related news posts
EU HRC: North nudges up, import offers soften
EU HRC: North nudges up, import offers soften
London, 20 August (Argus) — North European hot-rolled coil prices rose slightly today in continued quiet trading, as some mills sought a rollover for October rolling. Argus ' daily northwest EU HRC index rose by €1.75/t to €591/t ex-works, while the daily Italian index was unchanged at €595.25/t as the August holiday continued to quieten trade. The twice weekly cif Italy assessment nudged down by €7.50/t to €555/t cif. A major European steelmaker officially offered to northern buyers at €630/t, but buy-side sources said this level was much too high because of weak demand. Service centres in Germany and the Benelux reported losing cut-to-length deals below €700/t, and as low as €670/t ex-works from some mill-tied distributors. While most offers were around €600-620/t base, they expected to buy below for a reasonable tonnage as mills looked to fill their rolling programmes. One producer appears less hungry, despite not offering widely for October yet, as it is sending coil and slab to the UK. Projects have been postponed because of the high interest rate environment, which means service centre inventories are not moving as quickly as anticipated — however they are not highly stocked, as everyone has been managing stock levels, especially those who are approaching their financial year-end. One processor said projects booked earlier in the year for October have been pushed back into the second quarter, given high interest rates. A buyer quoted a rollover around €610/t said mills should have pushed for slight increases to try and stop the market falling. With pressure on costs, as Chinese steelmakers reduce their production, some suggested there would be further downside for coil prices as mills will have more wiggle room without sacrificing margin. Traders said €560/t could be a viable price from domestic producers should costs continue to soften. Some expected the Chinese steel market to be close to bottoming, and a flurry of short covering could stabilise prices, helping sentiment in the global marketplace. Chinese HRC was offered into Antwerp today around €600/t by at least one trader, although there are negotiations ongoing against another offer tabled as low as $510/t cfr, which is around €540/t including duties at today's exchange rate with dumping and countervailing measures of 18.1pc. Sustained decreases in Chinese HRC prices have filtered into lower offers for HRC, especially from some Asian sellers. The softening is exacerbated by the strengthening of the euro against the US dollar, making dollar-denominated offers work out lower in euro than last week. A Vietnamese mill was confirmed to offer at €535-540/t cfr EU, but it was struggling to find any interest. India was reported at €560-575/t cfr south EU. One offer from a Turkish mill stood at just under €560/t cfr Italy last week, whereas another mill was heard offering HRC at between €570-590/t cfr, duty included. Trader offers have been made at a premium to these prices, especially for some higher-quality Asian material, although one seller was heard close to the Vietnamese offer. Japanese cold-rolled coil was offered into Antwerp at €665/t fca, down around €20/t over the last week. Feedback from buyers was limited, with many still absent from the market for holidays. In the futures market today, October traded twice at €616/t on the CME Group's north European contract, while two fourth quarter strips traded later in the day at €630/t. Blast furnace outages in the EU Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Operator takes reins of Kurdish gas field expansion
Operator takes reins of Kurdish gas field expansion
Dubai, 20 August (Argus) — The consortium that operates the Khor Mor gas field in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has issued a termination notice to the Canadian contractor it hired to increase production capacity. The Pearl Petroleum consortium issued the notice to Toronto-listed Enerflex on 19 August after "numerous performance issues" during the execution period of the $806mn engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, according to consortium member Dana Gas. "The ongoing impact of these performance issues has materially affected Enerflex's ability to meet its contractual obligations, leading to unacceptable delays and hindering the progress and timely completion of the Khor Mor gas expansion project," Dana Gas said. Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas is one of five companies in the Pearl Petroleum consortium — the others are Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum, Austria's OMV, Hungary's Mol and German utility RWE. Pearl Petroleum will now take direct control of the expansion project to ensure "it is brought back on track and completed in the timeliest manner", Dana Gas said. The project , which will boost capacity at Khor Mor by 250mn ft³/d to 750mn ft³/d, had been due to deliver first gas in April this year but missed that deadline. All of Khor Mor's gas production to date has been used for power generation in Iraq's Kurdish region, although the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has toyed with the idea of exporting gas . "We will become a net exporter of gas to the rest of Iraq, Turkey and Europe in the near future," KRG prime minister Masrour Barzani said back in 2022, not long after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As well as the delay to the capacity expansion project, these ambitions have been undermined by repeated drone attacks on Khor Mor in recent years, which often disrupt its production. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but officials typically attribute them to pro-Iran groups within federal Iraq. Iraq has relied on gas import agreements with Iran for several years, and the two countries agreed on a new 50mn m³/d gas supply deal earlier this year. Washington has issued sanctions waivers to allow Iraq to import electricity and natural gas from Iran ever since former president Donald Trump's administration reimposed restrictions on Tehran's energy sector in 2018. Iraq relies on Iran for about a quarter of its energy needs, compared with 40pc three years ago, according to the US State Department. The US sees Iraq becoming self-sufficient in energy by 2030. By Bachar Halabi Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
France’s Montoir LNG restart delayed by pipeline works
France’s Montoir LNG restart delayed by pipeline works
London, 20 August (Argus) — Maintenance at France's 8mn t/yr Montoir LNG import terminal has been repeatedly delayed because of "technical difficulties" relating to the replacement of two sections of a pipeline at the terminal, operator Elengy told Argus . The pipeline links the gas odorisation station and the GRTgaz grid injection station. Gas in France is odorised at all grid network levels, including transmission, rather than solely distribution networks. The works were completed last week, and the terminal is preparing for its cool-down phase, Elengy said. The end of works has been delayed nine times , and is now scheduled to restart sendout on 21 August. The terminal has been off line since 15 June, and was initially set to resume sendout on 8 July. Sendout from the terminal is nominated to average 154 GWh/d for 21-31 August, down from the 240 GWh/d nominated for the period on 19 August, according to Elengy data (see sendout graph) . And one delivery for late August has been removed from the schedule (see stocks graph) . By Martin Senior Montoir sendout nominations Montoir LNG stocks Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Japan’s Sumitomo to buy stake in monopile producer EEW
Japan’s Sumitomo to buy stake in monopile producer EEW
Tokyo, 20 August (Argus) — Japanese trading house Sumitomo plans to buy a stake in Germany-based monopile steel slab producer EEW, aiming to strengthen its investment in offshore wind power generation projects in Europe. Sumitomo is planning to close the deal by the end of the year, according to the company on 19 August. The investment amount and size of the stake was undisclosed. Demand for monopile, large diameter steel pipes used for the foundations of bottom-fixed offshore wind power generation projects, is expected to exceed 1mn t/yr by 2026 from 650,000 t/yr in 2023 in Europe, according to Sumitomo. Monopile demand in Europe is forecast to reach around 400 unit/yr by 2026, with an ordinary single monopile weighing 2,500t. EEW produced 2,200 monopiles over the past 15 years, it said, mostly for European wind farms. "Monopile supply is already tight", according to a Sumitomo representative who spoke to Argus, following an expansion of wind power generation projects in Europe. Sumitomo is expanding its involvement in European wind power generation projects partly with an aim of buying steel materials manufactured with fewer greenhouse gas emissions, according to the firm. "The supply source of the green steel components includes the Japanese steel producers," the representative added, although further details were undisclosed. Fellow Japanese steel producer JFE has sold 200,000 t/yr of steel product called JGreeX since 2023, with its impact of GHG emissions reduction certified by Japanese classification society Class NK. By Yusuke Maekawa Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Business intelligence reports
Get concise, trustworthy and unbiased analysis of the latest trends and developments in oil and energy markets. These reports are specially created for decision makers who don’t have time to track markets day-by-day, minute-by-minute.
Learn more