the paradox of the energy crisis again coal exports

The economic paradox associated with the global oil and gas crisis is that the oil and gas crisis harms countries importing fossil energy resources and on the contrary benefits the revenues of countries producing fossil energy resources like us.

The most popular evidence for this hypothesis is the energy crisis in several countries such as the United States, Europe and Asia, followed by economic recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the arrival of winter, increasing demand for fossil energy in many countries.

At the same time, the scarcity of natural gas supply, rising gas prices, rising electricity prices and the inaccessibility of fuel oil (BBM) are some of the reasons why countries in the world are entering the gap in the energy crisis.

Elsewhere in the world, our country as a producer and importer of traded commodities (oil, gas and coal), is benefiting greatly from this uncertain situation.

In fact, economic theory sometimes confuses our minds. However, the economic curve will always form and reach its equilibrium point at the production possibilities frontier.

This is economic justice, when one or some countries experience stagnation or crisis, others will have a surplus as a balance.

Political developments in the European region which are experiencing tension due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine have also exacerbated the energy crisis in the region.

The Russian oil and gas trade embargo was imposed by western countries as a consequence that Russia had to bear for its invasion of Ukraine.

This actually exacerbates the energy crisis in the European region where Russia is the main supplier of fossil energy for these countries.

The increasing political temperature in Europe has also triggered a decline in world oil and gas supply because Russia is an exporter of 11.4 percent of oil and gas fuel in the world.

The decline in the supply of fossil energy has triggered a spike in crude oil and natural gas prices in the international market.

In fact, oil prices are now near their highest level for the last 7 years.

This reality encourages countries in the European region to change their energy use policies.

The Netherlands has lifted restrictions on its coal-fired power plants in anticipation of rising oil and gas prices.

This policy was also followed by Germany and Austria which announced the restart of their steam power plants.

With the efforts of countries in the Blue Continent to revive steam power plants (PLTU) to overcome the lack of gas supply, Indonesia's coal exports have more than doubled.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that the value of Indonesia's coal exports to the EU in the second quarter of this year reached US$ 191.2 million, a 143.72 percent jump compared to the previous quarter.

The same thing also happened in Jambi Province. During semester 1 2022, Jambi's coal export volume to foreign countries increased by 146.35 percent compared to semester 2 2021.

This surge in coal exports certainly has an impact on increasing foreign exchange inflows and increasing the potential for non-tax state revenues, one of which comes from coal mining.

The Ministry of Finance noted that Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) in the first semester of 2022 grew by 35.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

This increase was triggered by an increase in revenue from natural resources, which grew 86.8 percent compared to the same semester the previous year.

The momentum of the energy crisis that has raised the price of energy commodities needs to be maximized by the government to increase PNBP.

The significant and positive growth of PNBP will increase the fiscal space of the Indonesian State Budget to be spent as government expenditures in the context of post-covid-19 recovery.