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KOREAN COMPANY EYES BIODIESEL PLANT IN RP A Korean biodiesel company may build a processing plant here and export biodiesel to European countries. In a press briefing at the weekend, officials of Seoul-based NextOil Co., Ltd said they were in talks with two local coconut oil-producing companies that will provide them with biofuel crops. NextOil hopes to sign a memorandum of agreement with the companies next week. Chief Executive Office Roh Jong Ho told reporters through interpreter. The company plan to produce about 200 metric tons of biodiesel daily, the same processing capacity at its Korean facilities. Mr. Roh said NextOil is in talks with Germany, Spain and France for biodiesel exports. Germany, he said, had proposed to import 20,000 metric tons of biodiesel monthly. To date, the country has 10 biodiesel manufacturing plants, seven of which are in Luzon. The processing plants can produce 300 million liters of biodiesel yearly, government data showed. While the talks with local companies are ongoing, the company wants to process coconut oil in their plants in South Korea. "What we can do is to import the coconut oil from the Philippines and then we will process it in Korea, the firm uses feedstocks such as coconut oil during the dry season, soybeans during winter and vegetable oils in April to October. It plans to experiment with jathropa later, said Andrew Kwak, marketing director of NextOil. The company might also start processing used coconut oil, Mr. Roh said. But NextOil may have a hard time looking for coconut oil unless it builds a facility and plant coconut here, said Carlos B. Carpio, assistant administrator of the Philippine Coconut Authority. "The new technology of NextOil will be noting if we do not have coconuts (to process)," said Noel T. Florido, president of Filcoco Ventures, Inc. Coconut production in the first half reached 7.191 million metric tons, 6,49% higher than a year earlier. Business World
September 29,2008
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