Date: Sunday, June 21, 2009, 11:20 PM
--- In ITB_ News of the Day INDONESIA MANDIRI ENERGI ? NORTH AMERICA Magellan Midstream Partners has opened a new biodiesel blending and storage facility in Aurora, CO. The facility has an 84,000 gallon tank and will make biodiesel blends available to petroleum distributors. The US Government Accounting Office (GAO) has recommended establishing a uniform domestic and international biofuel blending standard to avoid increasing volatility in world markets and to add to supply security. In the US, the number of biofuel related patents (2,796) increased by over 150% in each of the past two years. In 2007, the number of biofuel patents (1,045) was more than the combined total of solar power (555) and wind power (282) patents. A preliminary assembly and annotation of the soybean genome, Glycine max, has been made available by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), to the scientific community to enable bioenergy research. The preliminary data can be accessed at http://www.phytozome.net/soybean. As South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds proposes a tax break to kick-start the state's biodiesel industry, some legislators are proposing to eliminate a similar incentive on ethanol-blended fuels. A bill filed in the Senate proposed to make the state tax on ethanol the same as the tax on regular gasoline to add about $4 million to the state's highway fund. The tax repeal bill is one of the first serious challenges to a long-standing tax incentive granted to the state's ethanol industry. SOUTH AMERICA Biocar will open a biodiesel plant in Dourados, the first in Mato Grosso do Sul state, on January 31, 2008. The plant will have a 55,000 mt per year capacity. Integrated Biodiesel Industries raised the share price of its current offering to $1.85 per share to reflect reduced investment risk and enhanced profit outlook. The revised business plan estimates annual biodiesel shipments of 75,000 mt for 2008 and 300,000 mt for 2009. At the current world market price of about $1,150/mt, this would result in estimated revenue of $50 million for 2008 and $250 million for 2009. EUROPE The US Trade Representative warned the EU yesterday against using environmental issues as an excuse for protectionism amid disputes ranging from biotechnology to greenhouse gas emissions. In reply, the EU Trade Commissioner said Europe also has concerns about US government support for the country's biofuel industry. EU diplomatic efforts regarding US biodiesel policy are now shifting towards the US Farm Bill, soon to move towards the conference stage, in which a tax credit extension is planned from the end of 2008 to 2010. The EU's energy chief defended plans to increase use of biofuels to fight climate change following a British Parliamentary report saying production of the most commonly used biofuels should cease until the environmental impacts can be improved. The report says, "Biofuels standards should be changed to ensure that support is given only to those that deliver environmental improvements over fossil fuels in terms of not only greenhouse gas emission reductions but also wider impacts such as fertilizer and pesticide pollution." Meanwhile, the EU Farm Commissioner said she did not envisage a change in overall EU biofuel policy any time soon, pointing out that a 10% target was modest compared with Brazil and the US. Russian agricultural company Rusagroproekt's unit Tersa Oil has concluded an agreement with Germany's Abako Management & Corporation to build a $50 million rapeseed processing and biodiesel production plant in the Volgograd Region. With construction starting in September, the plant will have a capacity to process 160,000 mt of rapeseed per year to produce 60,000 mt of biodiesel. ASIA / PACIFIC Crude palm oil prices have begun to fall in Malaysia as biodiesel demand drops off due to 80% price increases over the past 18 months. April crude palm oil prices fell to $944 per ton on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange Refined as exports fell 35-40% in January, according to cargo surveys conducted by Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) says it will invest $5 billion to build factories and plantations to develop biofuel from crude palm oil and jatropha oil in Papua and Kalimantan. Sinopec will team up with local company PT Puri Usaha Kencana to start the project this year. The EU's stand on palm-biodiesel imports is unlikely to reduce prices and booming demand for the commodity, analyst Dorab Mistry said on Monday. "It will simply mean that other oils will be used for biodiesel and palm will fill in the gap for edible demand." The EU is set to introduce tougher environmental criteria for biofuels, including a clampdown on palm biodiesel. Toyota Tsusho and two other firms say they have jointly developed a technology to produce biodiesel at lower cost. The new technology requires smaller amounts of methanol and alkali catalysts, and makes water removal unnecessary to remove glycerin. The company plans to put the technology into use in Asia by early 2010. The Jakarta Post reports the Indonesian National Biofuel Development Committee will propose legislation this year on mandatory use of biofuel in Indonesia. A 1% mandate is being considered. The Indonesian government has removed a 10% import tax on soybeans and is studying other measures to deal with the rising price of the commodity in global markets. The government is considering a price subsidy for soybean sold in the local market and may import soybean to build up the nation's stocks. (???) Also in Indonesia, British company Bronzeoak plans to partner with the Satria Group to invest $270 million to build a factory and plantation in East Nusatenggara to produce ethanol from sweet sorghum. In Java, the Sampoerna Group plans to break the ground to begin construction of an ethanol plant in Wonogiri, Central Java, before the end of the first quarter of this year. (???) The Philippine National Oil Company Alternative Fuels Corporation is set to begin engineering studies for construction of seed collection centers, crude jatropha oil expelling facilities, and a biodiesel plant. The studies will start in the first half of 2008, with construction to take place in the latter part of the year. HILANGKAN KETERGANTUNGAN ENERGI FOSSIL TERMASUK DARI KAWASAN BULE-KORMA --- End forwarded message --- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
