Indonesia seeks to cut fuel subsidies via biofuels

January 15, 2008 (Mongabay) – Biofuels will make up 10 percent of Indonesia’s fuel transport consumption by 2010 under a plan announced Monday by a senior government official, according to Reuters. The initiative could ease the economic impact of fuel subsidies – currently some of the highest in the world – in Indonesia, while boosting demand for locally produced bioenergy crops including palm oil, jatropha, sugar cane and cassava.”We can’t increase prices of subsidized fuel as it will hurt consumers. But we may be able to cut consumption and replace it with biofuel,” Reuters quoted Evita Legowo, secretary at the National Biofuel Development Team, as saying at the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit.

Presently Indonesia spends billions of dollars subsidizing and importing oil.

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Malaysia mulls biodiesel mandate

January 16, 2008 (Emerging Energy News) – Malaysia, one of the world’s largest palm oil exporters, looks set to follow the lead of neighbouring countries in mandating the use of biodiesel blend in fossil fuel transport. “We are looking at 2008 in terms of slowly implementing a 2-per cent blend at least,” Sabri Ahmad, chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, told the Reuters Global Agriculture and Biofuel Summit from Kuala Lumpur. “We must implement because neighbouring countries like Thailand and Indonesia have made it mandatory.”

Thailand plans to launch a B2 mandate, requiring a two per cent biodiesel content in the nation’s diesel consumption from Feb. 2.

Finland’s Neste Oil says Singapore biodiesel plant to be operational in 2010

January 16, 2008 (Thomson Financial) – Finnish oil refiner Neste Oil said Tuesday that its biodiesel plant in Singapore, its largest, will be operational 2010 and initially cater to Europe’s growing biofuel requirement.The company’s investment of 550 million euros to build the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 800,000 tons, is in line with its strategy to become the world’s leading producer of diesel from renewable feedstock.

It is anticipating that demand will grow rapidly in developed economies.

Demand for biodiesel in Europe is currently around 6-8 million tons annually and is expected to grow to 13-15 million tons by 2010.

50m gallon biodiesel facility completed in India

December 19, 2007 (Biofuel Review) – AE Biofuels (OTCBB: AEBF) has completed the construction of a 50 million gallons per year biodiesel facility located in Kakinada, India. The company has also announced that it has commenced the construction of a glycerin refinery adjacent to the biodiesel facility. The additional refining processes will, says the company, significantly increase the value of the glycerin by-product to be sold into Indian markets.The plant is connected to the Port of Kakinada, on the east coast of India, by pipeline, and has Export Oriented Unit status, thus benefiting from tax-free imports and other tax benefits. The plant is 74% owned by AE Biofuels and is 26% owned by one of the world’s largest palm oil suppliers, and a Singapore palm trading company.

Korean Biodiesel Market Crowded

December 17, 2007 (The Korea Times) – Use of biodiesel remains quite low at home. But the domestic biodiesel market seems to have reached saturation point already as demand fails to follow supply despite government efforts to increase the production and use of the alternative energy. South Korea has an annual production capacity of some 800,000 tons at the moment. But the demand is expected to remain at less than one-fourth of the supply, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy Monday.

Australian Jatropha Company Looks to Raise A$10m from IPO

November 14, 2007 (Biofuel Review) – A new Australian company, Jatoil Limited, formed to invest in the global market for biofuels, has announced an initial public offering to raise up to Aus$10 million ahead of its planned listing on the ASX on 12 December. According to the company it will supply rising international demand for biofuels by both growing and selling low-cost biodiesel feedstock overseas. The company’s main business will be the supply of Jatropha oil. It will, it says, develop its Jatropha feedstock supplies with local partners, initially in Asia, to supply the local Asian economies where the feedstock is grown and the European Union.

Natural Fuel Shuts Australia’s Biggest Biodiesel Plant

November 12, 2007 (Platts) – Natural Fuel Australia Ltd. has shut the Darwin biodiesel plant because of poor production economics, just a year after startup and barely months after making its first exports of biodiesel to Asian and US customers, several well-placed industry sources said Tuesday.

The biodiesel plant, which at 120,000 mt/year (2,400 b/d) of biodiesel production is Australia’s biggest biodiesel refinery and one of the world’s largest, was unlikely to restart any time soon, sources said.

The plant was shut in September or October, sources said. The plant opened in November 2006 and hit its nameplate capacity in March. In August, it announced its first export of 7,700 mt of biodiesel to Asia and the US. Calls to top officials from Natural Fuel Australia’s parent companies — Sydney-listed Natural Fuel Ltd. and Babcock & Brown Environmental Investments Ltd. — were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Thai Cops Beg for Cooking Oil to Fuel Fleet

November 13, 2007 (Reuters) – Thai police have put out an all-points bulletin for used cooking oil to fuel its patrol fleet as ballooning oil prices eat away the annual crime-fighting budget. Anyone is welcome to contribute a source for biodiesel, from large food processing plants to roadside fried banana stalls.

‘Thai police in the globalised world must have one hand holding pistols and arresting crooks and the other hand making biodiesel,’ said Lieutenant-Colonel Tepvisit Potigengrit, head of a biofuel project at a Bangkok police station.

The campaign began in May at three police stations in Bangkok. By the end of this year, police plan to have 80 of their 1,500 stations nationwide run their pickup trucks on biodiesel.

The cost of making biodiesel from used edible oils is 7 baht (S$0.32) a litre. Conventional diesel costs 28.64 baht.

China Fuel Crisis Spreads

October 31, 2007 (Reuters) – China’s worst fuel crisis in two years spread to the capital and other inland areas by Wednesday, and one man was killed in a brawl at a petrol station queue, upping pressure on the government to intervene. Diesel shortages in China’s political heart, which escaped previous supply crunches unscathed, highlight tensions between the government and its increasingly independent oil firms about who should pay for the country’s generous fuel subsidies.

Solar Cars Continue Race Across Outback Australia

October 23, 2007 (Monsters and Critics) – A Japanese car led a 37-strong field Tuesday in a race across the Australian Outback that is reserved for the world’s most environmentally friendly vehicles.