Indonesia to Convert 9 Million Tonnes of Coal into Gas, Here's the Capacity

Indonesia continues to promote the downstreaming of coal into gas, as developed by PT Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA). This coal company will convert millions of tonnes of coal into value-added energy products. PTBA’s President Director Arsal Ismail revealed that one of the main projects being developed is coal to Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG). In this project, PTBA is preparing around 9 million tonnes of coal as raw material. According to him, this project aims to provide an alternative gas supply, particularly in the region from South Sumatra to West Java. In its development plan, the SNG project is targeted to produce a capacity of 237 BBTUD. “This project is certainly aimed at providing an alternative gas supply in the region from South Sumatra to West Java. The coal requirement is 9 million tonnes. Then this project will certainly produce a syngas capacity of 237 BBTUD,” said Arsal during a working meeting with Commission XII of the House of Representatives, quoted on Wednesday (15/4/2026). In its development scheme, PTBA will form a joint venture with PT Perusahaan Gas Negara Tbk (PGN), which will also become the 100% off-taker of the SNG produced. Besides SNG, PTBA is also developing a coal-to-dimethyl ether (DME) downstreaming project as a substitute for imported LPG. This project is targeted to have a capacity of around 1.4 million tonnes and is expected to provide added value up to 4.3 times. In its implementation, PTBA will act as the factory operator as well as the coal supplier. Meanwhile, Pertamina will be the off-taker that absorbs the entire DME production. “This is still in process; we are proceeding with Danantara, hopefully the economics will make PTBA even better,” he said.