More overseas firms are showing interest in developing the bioenergy sector in Indonesia, which has secured investment commitment to some 17.7 billion U.S. dollars, local press said Tuesday.
British oil giant BP Plc. and its partner D1 Oil Plc., had allocated 160 million dollars for developing the industry in Indonesia. Sweden's Bioenergy had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of 100,000 hectares of jatropha plantations in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province, reported English daily The Jakarta Post, quoting a government official.
Alhilal Hamdi, head of the government's biofuel development committee, said the value of this investment was around 200 million dollars as the Swedish company was also planning to build a biofuel plant with a capacity of 350,000 tons per day.
Under the government's biofuel plans, Indonesia wants to develop 5.25 million hectares of biofuel plantations in the next three years in order to produce 5.29 million kiloliters of biofuel per year by 2010.
Indonesia has laid the foundations to become one of the world's top biofuel producers in the coming years with the signing of 58 agreements worth 12.4 billion dollars with 59 energy firms and institutions in January.
Among the big companies on the list are China's major energy firms, CNOOC and Sinopec, Malaysia-based Genting Biofuels Asia and a number of local companies, including the Sinar Mas Group.
CNOOC is now in the process of building three biodiesel plants in West Kalimantan.
In addition, three Austrian companies -- Energea, BioDiesel International and the Christof Group -- said recently that they were interested in constructing biodiesel refineries, and have been involved in discussions with potential Indonesian partners.
Source: Xinhua
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