China's oil giants place bets on biofuels

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Limited announced recently that a biodiesel plant with an annual output of 60,000 tons will be built within the year in Dongfang City, Hainan Province. Plans also include planting 100,000 mu (about 25.7 square miles) of jatropha curcas in Hainan to provide raw material for the biodiesel plant in the future. Likewise, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have ambitious plans as well. In July 2006, Sinopec decided to build a biodiesel plant with an annual output of 100,000 tons in Panzhihua, Sichuan Province, together with an auxiliary energy forest base of 400,000-500,000 mu (up to 128 square miles). In January 2007, CNPC signed a total cooperative framework agreement on the development of biomass energy with China National Forest Bureau. Starting in 2007, both parties will launch one jatropha curcas demonstration farm in Yunnan and Sichun respectively, which are capable of supplying feedstock for a 20,000-30,000-ton biodiesel plant annually. (April 16, 2007)