(Risk Net, London, 26 September 2024) Last year, Deutsche Bank was selected as sole hedge co-ordinator and hedge arranger for a landmark $3.1 billion project-financing deal in Indonesia. Deutsche Bank declined to say who the client was, only that it was a processing and petrochemical company that wanted to modernise and expand an oil and gas refinery in the country. The project is part of Jakarta’s strategy for reforming the country’s oil and gas sector. Indonesia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil and gas, and yet for several years has imported far more of the commodity than it has produced. The $3.1 billion project-financing deal was one of the largest ever done in Indonesia, involving three export credit agencies and 22 commercial lenders.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s Pertamina reaches $3.1 billion ECA and bank financing deal for Balikpapan oil refinery
(Reuters, Jakarta, 24 June 2023) Indonesia’s state energy company Pertamina (PERTM.UL) reached a $3.1 billion financing deal with a number of export credit agencies and commercial banks to fund the upgrade of its Balikpapan refinery, the company said on Saturday. The lenders include export credit agencies from South Korea, Italy and the United States, and 22 commercial banks. Pertamina will use the funds for the expansion of its Balikpapan oil refinery to a capacity of 360,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 260,000 bpd. Pertamina claims it will be able to produce more environmentally friendly fuels. [Oil Change International noted in May that US President Biden has broken a major G7 climate promise by financing this Indonesian oil refinery.]
Comments to US EXIM opposing an Indonesia oil refinery
What ETMs can and can’t do for coal retirements
(TXF, London, 30 November 2022) The evolving science of coal plant retirement financing has had a busy couple of weeks with the Asia Development Bank signing a 14 November memorandum of understanding re potential early retirement of the Cirebon Electric Power for unit 1 of the 1,660MW Cirebon coal-fired plant, using the ADB’s Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). The day after, on the sidelines of the same G20 summit where the Cirebon MOU was signed, the US, Indonesia and a raft of other developed countries launched the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a $20 billion combination of grants, concessional loans, commercial loans, ECA guarantees, and private investment. The programme will cover a big expansion in renewables, and the retirement of coal capacity whose emissions cannot be rebated. Aside from the summit-friendly but content-light announcements, there was further progress on the first coal retirement financing in Asia for a 244MW Philippino coal plant.
Japanese Civil Society welcomes halt of Bangladesh & Indonesian coal projects and Russian LNG project
(JACSES, Tokyo, 22 June 2022) It has been reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to halt Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Matarbari 2 in Bangladesh and the Indramayu coal-fired power project in Indonesia. Both projects have been strongly criticized internationally with repeated calls for the suspension of support, as they not only exacerbate the climate crisis, but also have a huge impact on the livelihoods of local people. However, in Bangladesh, construction of the Matarbari 1 coal-fired projects which has already been supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has caused unemployment of many local people who made their livelihoods by salt pans and farming shrimp. And delays in compensation payments and alternative housing have made their lives more difficult. There has also been unauthorized reclamation of riverbed due to dumping sediments which was associated with the construction of an access road. These sites and structures were also planned to be used in Matarbari 2. As noted Japan is one of the world’s largest financiers of oil, gas and coal. In addition Japanese ECA JBIC has suspended funding for Russian gas producer Novatek’s major Arctic LNG project, adding yet further strain to a development that has been hard hit by western sanctions.
Bombardier cooperating with SFO corruption investigation
(Compliance Week, Boston, 6 November 2020) The U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday confirmed it is investigating plane maker Bombardier over suspected bribery and corruption in relation to contracts and orders from Indonesian airline carrier Garuda Indonesia. According to the allegations, Garuda’s former CEO received US$3.2 million in bribery payments from consultants in exchange for securing maintenance and procurement contracts for Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Bombardier, and Avions de Transport Regional. The bribery payments were said to have originated from the commissions received by the consultant from each of these airline manufacturers. The U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Thursday confirmed it is investigating plane maker Bombardier over suspected bribery and corruption in relation to contracts and orders from Indonesian airline carrier Garuda Indonesia. As Compliance Week previously reported, a March 2017 report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project — a consortium of nonprofit investigative centers and media outlets around the globe — alleged Bombardier Transportation paid “millions of dollars in bribes to unidentified Azerbaijani officials through a shadowy company registered in the United Kingdom. Canada’s Export Development Corporation (EDC) first initiated a review of Bombardier in August 2019, following leaked preliminary findings from a World Bank investigation into a 2013 contract Bombardier Transportation had with Azerbaijan Railways. In February 2020, (EDC, Canada’s export credit agency wholly owned by the Government of Canada, concluded in an independent review of Bombardier’s compliance policies and procedures that the company was progressing.
ECAs Backing Coal as Some of the World’s Biggest Banks Get Out
(Bloomberg, 8 March 2020) Moves by some of the world’s biggest banks to end coal financing for the sake of the planet was supposed to create major headaches for companies like Whitehaven Coal Ltd. Yet there was the Australian miner on a conference call last month announcing the refinancing and extension of a A$1 billion ($650 million) credit line, backed mostly by Chinese and Japanese lenders. The Export-Import Bank of China and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation lead firms that have committed $29 billion for new coal power projects in Vietnam and Indonesia alone.
Korea should stop funding coal power in Indonesia
(Korea Herald, Seoul, 7 October 2019) While South Korea has vowed to phase out fossil fuels and turn to clean energy to combat climate change and air pollution, it is supporting coal-fired power plants elsewhere – like in Indonesia. The government is virtually contributing to environmental damage as well as corruption in Indonesia by financially supporting Korean companies that are building coal-fired power plants there, according to an environmental activist. “The land has been contaminated so much that we cannot plant fruits anymore. The seawater is also severely contaminated, so the number of fish in the sea has plummeted. We have to go a long distance to catch fish,” said Meiki Wemly Paendong, executive director of West Java at WALHI, an environmental organization in Indonesia. “The pollution levels have worsened, with many locals contracting respiratory diseases,” he said. “Local residents (living near the coal-fired power plant) feel that the plant is ruining everything.” Building of the 1,000-MW Cirebon 2 coal-fired power plant in West Java, Indonesia, began in 2016, with Export-Import Bank of Korea providing a 600 billion won (US$515 million) loan for the project. The construction is set to be completed in 2022. Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission has already questioned some 140 people linked to the corruption allegations as part of a sweeping investigation of the Cirebon project. Over the last decade, Korea has invested a combined 11.6 trillion won (US$10 billion) in 24 coal plant-building projects in seven countries through state-run banks, including the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korea Development Bank and Korea Trade Insurance Corp. While the Indonesian government is considering suspending at least half of the plants in the wake of worsening environmental pollution, Korea plans to fund the construction of two more 2,000-MW coal power plants — Jawa-9 and Jawa-10 — in Suralaya, Indonesia.
Tiny Timor-Leste Needs Gas and China’s All Too Eager to Help
(Bloomberg, Suai, 28 August 2019) Colonized by Portugal, invaded by Indonesia, suckered by Australia, Timor-Leste doesn’t need another abusive relationship. But the clock is now ticking for Timor-Leste to find international funding for a $12 billion energy project so work can start before its existing oil cash cow — a separate nearby gas field — becomes defunct as soon as 2021. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips have given up on the project after more than two decades, selling their stakes back to the government last year. Twenty years on from a referendum that brought independence from Indonesia after a brutal quarter-century conflict killed an estimated 100,000 people, Timor-Leste’s birthing pains are evident everywhere. With almost half its 1.2 million people living in poverty, the aging war heroes still in charge are now betting big on a risky energy project that could draw one of the world’s youngest nations into a wider geopolitical tussle between the West and China. Fitch Solutions estimates the project, which has been under negotiation for more than a decade, has enough reserves to yield $50 billion in revenue at today’s prices—more than 15 times the country’s gross domestic product. But there’s one big problem: President Gusmao, 73, has insisted the project is built onshore to create much-needed jobs. For energy giants, that’s unfeasible because it requires laying pipeline across a trough to depths of 3,300 meters. That’s making the U.S. nervous China will use debt as a way in to bolster its regional footprint. Timor Gap, which is responsible for developing the on-shore part of Tasi Mane, says it’s arranging $9 billion of the $12 billion needed to fund the Greater Sunrise project, and it’s agnostic about where the money will come from. It’s denied media reports that the funds would come from Export-Import Bank of China. See also Timor-Leste Should Beware China’s Belt and Road.
Indonesia looks to ECA funding for aerial refuelling tanker-transports
(Jane’s Defence Weekly, Singapore, 25 January 2019) The Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU) has completed a study on the country’s aerial refuelling requirements and has proposed the acquisition of two new airframes for the service, outlining a budget requirement of about USD500 million, proposing that the funds be drawn down from foreign defence export credit loans. Jane’s first reported in January 2018 that the TNI-AU had begun a preliminary study to compare the A330 multirole tanker-transport (MRTT) from Airbus and the KC-46A Pegasus from Boeing. Russia’s four-engine Ilyushin Il-78 was also later included in the study.
