Acting minister for energy & mineral resources Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, one of trusted aides of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, said the government has dropped a plan to resume export of nickel ores to protect investments in the domestic processing facilities (smelters).

Energy stocks gained worldwide Monday (Oct 10) as WTI crude oil jumped 3.1% to US$51.35 per barrel, the highest closing value since July 2015. ExxonMobil and Chevron gained 1.96% and 1.67% respectively in New York, while BP advanced 1.74% in London. Santos Ltd followed with almost 5% gain in Sydney this morning.

Commodities regained grounds worlwide Thursday to follow crude oil. Nickel, for example, returned to above US$10,000/ton, while tin closed at US$20,200/ton in London Metal Exchange (LME). Aneka Tambang (ANTM), Vale Indonesia (INCO), and Timah (TINS) opened higher on IDX Friday (Oct 7) accordingly.

Delta Dunia Makmur (DOID), the coal mining contractor, is among the best performing stocks with 411% gain year-to-date. The Company is in the process of issuing up to US$500 million Notes on the Singapore Exchange (SGX-ST) to refinance existing debentures. Recent rally of thermal coal prices might help.

We’ve heard lots of rumours surrounding ownership of Medco Energi Internasional (MEDC) in the past few months. Rumours intensified in recent weeks about changes of ownership in the controlling entity of MEDC related to acquisition of Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), proposed acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ asset in Natuna, participation of Medco in acquisition of Chevron’s geothermal assets, and competition in the giant 1600 MW gas-fired power plant Jawa-1 project.

Reference price of Indonesian thermal coal (6322 Kcal/Kg) for October 2016 is set at US$69.07 per ton, an increase of 8% from last month, but soared 20.35% from October 2015. WTI crude oil, meanwhile, returned to above US$50 per barrel, while Brent advanced to US$51.73 per barrel.