Jakarta,     - Indonesia's energy and mineral resources sector contributed Rp235.3 trillion to state revenues this year, surpassing the target of Rp230.2 trillion set in the revised 2009 state budget, a minister said.

   The 2009 revenues from the sector came in 2.2 percent above the  target, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh said in a year-end report here on Thursday.

   "The energy and mineral resources sector remains the key engine of the national economy. It plays a role as a source of state and regional revenues and becomes a target of investment. It also creates more job opportunities to improve the country's welfare index," he said.

    In 2009, the oil and gas sector was still the biggest source of revenues in the energy and mineral resources sector, contributing Rp182.6 trillion to the total, he said.

    This was followed by the general mining with Rp51.6 trillion and other revenues Rp1.1 trillion, he said.

    "The target of state revenues from the energy and mineral resources sector for 2010 is Rp211 trillion," he said.

    Despite the global economic slowdown, investment in the energy and mineral resources sector in 2009 was still high, or almost equal to last year's US$19.9 billion, he said.

    In 2009, investment in the energy and mineral resources sector reached US$19.3 billion consisting of US$12.2 billion in the oil and gas sector, US$1.8 billion in the mineral, coal and geothermal energy sector, and US$5.3 billion in the electricity sector, he said.

    Energy production in 2009 reached 5.29 million barrels of oil equivalent, a 5.25 percent increase compared to 2008 when it stood at 5.026 million barrels of oil equivalent, he said.

    The 2009 energy production consisted of gas reaching 949,000 barrels per day, gas 1.42 million barrels of oil equivalent, and coal 2.921 million barrels of oil equivalent, he said.

    Mineral production in 2009 included 868,717 tons of copper, 105,404 kg of gold, 232,064 kg of silver. Last year, copper production stood at 655,058 tons, gold 64,376 kg and silver 226,051 kg.

-Antara, 29 December 2009-