Abundant Resources: Government Backs Coal Gasification

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Deputy Minister of Investment and Downstreaming, who also serves as Deputy Head of BKPM, Todotua Pasaribu, stated that Indonesia is blessed with abundant natural resources, particularly coal.

In essence, if coal is processed through downstreaming, it can be converted into gasification. Therefore, the government supports state-owned enterprises (BUMN) in promoting the downstreaming of coal into gasification.

“We happen to have a portfolio in power generation with this coal. China consumes 4,400 billion metric tons of coal. 33% is used for production, the rest for energy. We have… tons, and gasification has never even happened. This is funny,” explained Todotua Pasaribu at Mindialogue 2026, Wednesday (12/8/2026).

Therefore, the government has a plan to develop coal gasification into synthetic gas or synthetic methanol, and then into Dimethyl Ether (DME).

“Today we are talking about the B50 programme, that is FAME. It is a blend of RBDPO or CPO with methanol. But today, in the B40 position, we still import 2.8 million [tons of] methanol, which comes from gas.”

“Alright, hopefully our gas will be accelerated in Masela, but we are looking at it within the future framework. However, we have coal that can be gasified. That is why we support our colleagues at PTBA to develop synthetic gas into methanol,” Todotua asserted.