South Korea's AGB Energy to produce biofuel

AGB Energy of South Korea will invest Rp1 trillion (US$109.64 million) to build an integrated biofuels business, from plantation to a processing plant, under an agreement that it will supply its biofuels output to state-run PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), AGB President Kim Tae Sik said. He said the firm has already planted jatropha (castor oil) over an area of 20 hectares in North Maluku province and aims to have up to 300,000 hectares planted to the crop in the next few years. PLN Director Ali Herman Ibrahim said that under a memorandum of understanding between the two firms, PLN has agreed to buy biofuels from AGB to help speed up its electrification program in eastern Indonesia. (December 22, 2006)