Asia Energy

While hydrocarbons production in the Philippines has declined in recent decades, the exploration of new territory holds the potential to stave off dependence on foreign imports, if not reverse the trend altogether. Unfortunately, a host of obstacles will need to be overcome in order to achieve any significant improvement even in the short-to-medium...

Though Indonesia was not a major coal exporter until well into the 1990s, the country’s coal producers have made up for lost time by rapidly boosting their shipments. Along the way, they have ascended to the top spot in the seaborne coal hierarchy, surpassing Australia in 2011 and maintaining the lead position through boom and bust cycles.

Endowed with ample mineral and coal resources that have yielded some of the most productive mines in the world, Indonesia’s mining sector continues to exert substantial influence on both the domestic economy and global markets. The world’s largest coal exporter, Indonesia continues to lead the seaborne market despite several leaner years due to weaker demand and softer prices...

Throughout the 2014 campaign for the presidency, Joko Widodo, the eventual winner, stressed the need to bring new blood into a system widely perceived as broken and corrupt. With Widodo now in the driver’s seat, the optimism and hope that often follow a change in leadership is coming to a head during his first year of office. The big questions on everyone’s mind are whether...

Long known for maintaining low fuel prices despite its large population, Indonesia has recently begun to take meaningful steps to reform a decades-old policy that has bloated federal budgets and often fallen short of its purported aim of helping the less fortunate. Policymakers in Indonesia, as in many countries around the world, have long seen energy subsidies as a quick and...