Indonesia’s coal production may reach 380 million tons in 2012, or 14.4 percent higher than the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s production target of 332 million tons, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) says.

The association’s executive director, Supriatna Suhala, said in Jakarta on Monday that the estimate was reasonable since this year’s production had already reached almost 360 million tons.

“Production may surpass the government’s target because this year the production has hit nearly 360 million. Next year, we forecast that production may hit between 370 million and 380 million tons,” he said on Monday.

He said that the government’s target was lower than the association’s estimates because the government did not take into account small mining companies.

The government projected that the country’s coal production would reach 332 million tons. The target was made to determine the volume of coal that has to be sold by producers to the domestic market under the domestic market obligation (DMO) scheme. For 2012, coal mining companies are obliged to sell 24.72 percent of their production to domestic users under the DMO ruling.

“Only around 80 percent of companies are registered in the central government’s data. The ministry estimated its target without calculating the production of all companies. There are hundreds of coal mining companies in the country, but only a few of them are bound to DMO,” Supriatna said.

To date, only 63 coal mining companies are obliged to comply with DMO. Next year, the amount of coal sold under the DMO scheme is predicted to reach 82.07 million tons. Around 69.7 percent of that amount will go to PLN’s power plants.

One of the 63 companies obliged to comply with DMO in 2012 is PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), the country’s largest coal producer. The company is obliged to sell 12.68 million tons to domestic users next year.

The second-largest coal producer, PT Adaro Indonesia, must sell 11.74 million tons to the domestic market, while the third-largest producer, PT Kideco Jaya Agung, is obliged to reserve 8 million tons for the domestic market.

PT Arutmin Indonesia and PT Berau Coal, the fourth- and fifth-largest coal producers, must sell 6.6 million tons and 5.51 million tons, respectively, to the domestic market.

In addition to the five major coal producers, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry also obliges 35 mining contract license holders to sell 22.52 million tons domestically, while state coal miner PT Bukit Asam must reserve 3.21 million tons for Indonesia’s market.

Indonesia, the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, produced 275 million tons of coal in 2010.

In the first quarter of this year, Indonesia produced 188 million tons of coal, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association’s (APBI) data shows. The APBI estimated that this year’s production might exceed its target.

The government previously said that it would impose a moratorium on the issuance of new mining permits, saying that the freeze was needed to give authorities time to settle growing conflicts resulting from overlapping permits. The ministry’s mineral and coal directorate general said that of the 8,475 mining licenses issued as of May 21, 4,504 were problematic.