Korea's KTI to invest in Philippine biofuel plantation

Korea Technology Industry Co. Ltd. (KTI) will invest US$210 million in the next two years in a jatropha plantation and biodiesel refinery in the Philippines, according to a pact signed with state-run PNOC-Alternative Fuels Corp. KTI will invest US$150 million for the jatropha plantation and another US$60 million to build a refinery with a 300 metric ton capacity to be put up by 2009, the agreement showed. The Philippines is pushing the use of alternative fuels to reduce the country’s US$6 billion annual oil import bill. Jatropha is a drought-resistant perennial bush or small tree that analysts consider to be one of the most promising sources of biofuel. Last month, a Singapore-based group, Tian Biogreen Energy Ltd., said it would develop 2 million hectares of jatropha in the Philippines to produce 1.2 million metric tons a year of jatropha crude. (August 21, 2007)