San Carlos starts supplying ethanol to Petron

Philippine ethanol producer San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. delivered its first large shipment of ethanol (1.6 million liters) to Petron Corp. on March 16. San Carlos has a long-term agreement with Petron to supply its entire annual output of around 38 million liters of fuel-grade ethanol beginning in February, but had to postpone delivery due to equipment problems during plant commissioning. Petron’s annual ethanol requirement is 70 million liters. Local oil companies are allowed to import ethanol from foreign suppliers until 2011, as less than a fifth of the country’s ethanol requirements, or 200 million liters per year, can be supplied by local producers. (February 1/ March 19, 2009)