BP foresees rise in biofuel use

BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, says biofuels may replace as much as 24 per cent of gasoline and diesel by 2030.

Use of fats derived from vegetable and animal sources to stretch fuels made from crude oil has "significant'' growth potential over the next 10 to 20 years, Hur Sung Woo, vice president of business development, Southeast Asia, at BP Biofuels, said today.

"Biofuels may grow by between 85 and 195 billion gallons per year by 2030, replacing between 10 and 24 per cent of gasoline and diesel demand,'' Woo said at the Second Ethanol & Biofuels Asia conference in Singapore.

Biofuels currently account for less than 5 per cent of global transport fuel use, according to consultant Frost & Sullivan.

Investors may potentially spend as much as $700 billion over the next 20 years to increase capacity, Woo said. That's the equivalent of a new 100 million-gallon plant being built every five days, he said.

The estimated rate of biofuel capacity addition is comparable to the level of energy supply growth in China, where a new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant comes online every five days, he said.

"That's not impossible in theory,'' said Chris de Lavigne, global vice president at Frost & Sullivan. "Biofuels will become part of the energy mix. But the industry faces several challenges. One of the biggest challenges is, where are producers going to get enough feedstock?''

Jatropha
"I firmly believe, we should see the growing demand for low-carbon energy as a big business opportunity,'' BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said on Tuesday at the Energy Institute luncheon in London. "Many consumers want to limit their carbon foot-print.''

BP serves almost 13 million customers a day, Hayward said. The company plans to invest $8 billion in solar, wind, hydro energy and gas-fired power and $500 million to conduct research on biofuels and bio-technology for energy over the next 10 years.

BP in July formed a joint-venture with UK biofuels developer D1 Oils to accelerate the planting of jatropha to boost supply of feedstock.

D1-BP Fuel Crops will invest $160 million over the next five years to develop cultivation of jatropha, a drought- resistant, inedible oilseed-bearing tree that doesn't compete with food crops, in Southeast Asia, India, southern Africa, and Central and South Americas.

The company, aimed at meeting the need to find a sustainable fuel crop, will be the largest grower of jatropha, Woo said.

BP accounts for about 10% of the global biofuels market, the London-based company said in a statement on its website. It last year blended and distributed 800 million US gallons of ethanol, including 718 million gallons in the US.