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.

The government has been lobbied by coal miners and some of its biggest buyers to ease the export ban.

On Wednesday, about 120 vessels were either loading or waiting to load off coal ports in Kalimantan, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

"We recognize that allowing loaded ships to depart is a small step in easing and that progress needs to be made toward lifting the export ban," research group CreditSights said.

"Indonesia's government will monitor DMO compliance every month, which we think will help to avoid the abrupt imposition of coal export bans in the future," it said in a note.

Miners face fines

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif in a House of Representatives hearing on Thursday was asked about the enforcement of the DMO and export ban, while a number of lawmakers called for greater transparency in DMO compliance.

"The plan of easing the coal export ban is taking place and will continue to be evaluated, and we will ensure that the vessels that have been allowed to export are those that have fulfilled the DMO," Arifin told House members.

The Investment Ministry said in a statement that mining companies that had met their sales contracts with PLN and 100 percent of their DMO requirements for 2021 would be allowed to begin exporting.

Without naming the companies, Arifin said 47 miners had surpassed their DMO requirement and 32 miners had fulfilled between 75 and 100 percent of their domestic responsibilities.

Miners that had not fulfilled their PLN contracts and DMO would face fines, he added.

Citi, in a research note dated Jan. 5, estimated around 490 of the country’s 631 coal miners had not yet fulfilled their DMO obligations. These 490 coal miners represented 35 to 40 percent of Indonesia's total production, it said.

Indonesia's two largest coal groups, PT Bumi Resources and Adaro Energy, as well as state coal miner Bukit Asam, were among the companies that said in stock exchange filings that they had met DMO requirements.

Bumi Resources director Dileep Srivastava said on Thursday that the company was awaiting formal confirmation from the government but said an easing of the ban would be a positive development.

An Adaro spokesperson said its ships had yet to leave port as of Thursday morning.

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