Nearly Complete, Coal RKAB Approvals Reach Almost 600 Million Tonnes
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) has revealed that the approval process for Work Plans and Budgets (RKAB) for coal mining companies is nearly complete. The government has currently approved coal RKAB volumes approaching 600 million tonnes.
The Director General of Mineral and Coal (Minerba) at the Ministry of ESDM, Tri Winarno, explained that the RKAB approval process is now in its final stages. His office is awaiting several mining companies to complete missing administrative requirement documents.
“Nearly finished. Yes, there are some that are not yet complete and so on, we’re asking them to complete them, but it’s almost done,” Tri said when met at the Ministry of ESDM office in Jakarta, quoted on Tuesday (7/4/2026).
Tri elaborated that the accumulated approved coal production volume is steadily rising from the previous level of 580 million tonnes.
“(From 580 million tonnes) it’s moving, it’s approaching, almost done. That’s about it,” he added.
Regarding the policy discourse on relaxing or easing coal production quotas previously mentioned by Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, Tri confirmed the plan for such “measured relaxation.” However, he emphasised that the government has not yet determined the technical mechanisms or implementation timeline for revising the RKAB.
The government is being very cautious in increasing production quotas to avoid disrupting market balance. According to Tri, uncontrolled supply additions risk triggering oversupply, which would ultimately depress coal prices.
“The mechanism isn’t there yet. This is supply and demand; if supply becomes excessive again, prices will drop,” Tri explained.
On the other hand, Tri assured that the allocation of coal for domestic needs (Domestic Market Obligation/DMO), particularly for PT PLN (Persero)’s power plants, is in a very secure position. He stated that the supply securing process is now at the contract finalisation stage.
“Insya Allah, it’s safe. For now, it’s just the contracts between PLN and those assigned the task,” he concluded.
Coal Targets
For the coal sector, the government plans to reduce production in 2026 to approximately 600 million tonnes. This figure represents a decline of around 190 million tonnes compared to the 2025 production realisation of 790 million tonnes.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia stated that this production target cut is intended to drive coal prices back up and preserve coal reserves for the future.
According to him, Indonesia supplies around 514 million tonnes of coal, or 43% of the total global trade volume of 1.3 billion tonnes per year. This situation is the root cause of falling coal prices.
“As a result, supply and demand are imbalanced, meaning coal prices drop. Through this happy opportunity, the Ministry of ESDM has met with the Director General of Minerba; we will revise the RKAB quotas. So, we will lower our production to make prices good and save our mines for our grandchildren,” Bahlil said, quoted on Monday (19/1/2026).