A senior Cabinet minister said in a statement that the ban, implemented on Jan. 1, had been eased for miners that had met a requirement to sell a portion of their output for local power generation, after the country procured enough coal to ensure 15 days of power.

"I request that this is supervised closely so that this also serves as an opportunity for us to improve domestic governance," Coordinating Maritime and Investment Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in a statement on Thursday.

The 37 vessels included 14 ships whose clearance was announced earlier in the week.

The ships can carry a total of about 1 million tons of coal, a spokesperson for Luhut said. That compares to exports of around 30 million tons of coal in January of 2021 and 2020.

The government set the export ban after state electricity company PLN reported critically low coal stocks at power plants and said the country was on the brink of widespread power outages. The ban sent shockwaves through global energy markets, especially in Indonesia's largest coal customers, which include Japan and South Korea.

The authorities blamed the coal supply crisis on miners failing to meet a domestic market obligation (DMO), which required them to sell 25 percent of output to local buyers with a price cap of US$70 per ton for power plants.

Popular

Leaving Indonesia, loving Indonesia: A path for diaspora

Indonesia seeks better US tariff terms after 10% forced-labor duty

Press unions demand apology from Prabowo for denigrating comments