India's Essar Group announced it will divert some of its coal from one of its Indonesian mines to help the world's third-largest economy cope with its fluctuating power supply brought about by acute coal shortages.

Essar Group will source the raw commodity from a mine in Indonesia which holds estimated coal reserves of 64 million tonnes (MT), the Business Standard quoted an article by Forbes Indonesia magazine.

"India's Essar Group is investing heavily in Indonesia to secure coal for demand at home ... (it) is making some big forays into the Indonesian coal sector," Forbes Indonesia magazine reported, noting Indonesian coal for Indian power plants "matches up a ready supplier with an eager consumer."

"Indonesia has maximum potential in terms of the size of the market...India is short of natural resources such as coal, iron ore, oil and gas and that is why we are investing internationally," Prashant Ruia, Essar Group's Chief Executive, said.

A multinational conglomerate corporation engaged in steel, energy, power, communications, shipping ports & logistics as well as construction, the Group's subsidiary Essar Energy has purchased two more mines in the island nation. Essar Energy currently has an installed capacity of 1,600 MW and is expected to hit 9,670 MW by 2014.

Essar had just recently bought Aries coal mine in Indonesia for $118 million. Covering an expansive 5,000 hectares, the Aries coal mine is estimated to hold an annual potential output of 4 MT as of April 2010. It is now in the process of starting production.

"The mine will add to Essar Group's coal resource base, which currently is 275 MT," Forbes Indonesia said.

The Essar Group operates in more than 20 countries across five continents, employs 75,000 people worldwide, with revenues of $17 billion, according to its website.

In December, Indonesia, the world's biggest exporter of thermal coal, reported its October coal exports jumped 3.9 per cent at 27.9 million tons from the previous month of 26.8 million, data from the country's Ministry of Trade showed.