PNOC signs with U.K. firm

The biofuels unit of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) signed a US$1.3 billion deal on May 23 with British company NRG Chemical Engineering to build a biodiesel refinery and two ethanol plants in the Philippines. PNOC Alternative Fuels will form a joint venture with NRG, in the largest biofuel deal for the country to date. The partnership has plans to build a US$45 million biodiesel plant in the Philippines that will initially use coconut and vegetable oil as feedstock, while the partnership develops a 2.4 million-acre jatropha plantation to feed the new facility. PNOC-Alternative Fuels and NRG will additionally spend about US$200 million to build a 300,000 metric ton ethanol plant, which will use sweet sorghum. NRG will own 70% of the joint venture. (May 28, 2007)