Tata joins forces with JOil

India’s Tata Chemicals will invest SG$25 million (US$17 million) in a jatropha project with JOil, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL). Temasek specializes in producing jatropha seeds. The agreement with Temasek gives Tata Chemicals exclusive marketing rights to jatropha seeds in India and East Africa. It will also be able to buy seeds at a preferential price in order to grow its own jatropha crops for biodiesel production. JOil will work with the India-based subsidiary of Tata Group to “exploit the potential of the renewable energy industry,” said Tan Guong Ching, chairman of TLL. Tata Chemicals’ executive vice-president and chief financial officer P.K. Ghose said the venture “could in future have a significant benefit for the production of biodiesel from jatropha both in terms of yield and cost.” (December 1, 2009)