Spain’s actions “shouldn’t be allowed by the European Union as it would be incompatible with the commitments assumed by the bloc in international trade agreements and the rules stipulated by the WTO,” Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.

The ministry sent a letter with its request to EC trade director Jean-Luc Demarty.

Last month, Spain started requiring that all biodiesel used there be sourced from European Union producers. The measure effectively blocks imports of the fuel from Argentina, which had dominated Spain’s biodiesel market.

Soybean-based biodiesel imports from Argentina were valued at about EUR750 million ($990 million) in 2011, according to Spain’s Renewable Energy Producers Association.

The Spanish government took the measure in retaliation for Argentina’s expropriation of a 51% stake in oil and gas company YPF SA (YPF, YPFD.BA) from Spain’s Repsol YPF SA (REP.MC).

However, Argentina may get little sympathy for its allegations of unfair trade practices by Spain. The South American country has implemented increasingly restrictive foreign exchange controls and trade barriers in recent months to protect its international reserves. Since February, Argentine companies must receive authorization from the tax authority and other government agencies before importing goods–a cumbersome process that has caused delays and driven up the cost of imported goods.

In March, the U.S., European Union and a dozen other countries demanded in a joint statement that Argentina lift its import restrictions, suggesting the dispute could be referred to the WTO.

However, a formal accusation against Argentina might struggle to gain traction at the WTO for lack of evidence.

Argentina’s trade policies are often informal in nature, enforced verbally during phones calls in which government officials ask companies not to import certain goods.MARKETWATCH.

MADRID — Spanish oil company Repsol said Tuesday it had made the first step in taking legal action against Argentina for nationalizing its energy firm YPF.

In a statement, Repsol YPF SA said it had sent a letter to Argentine President Cristina Kirchner notifying her that it sees a controversy in the seizure of YPF which should be resolved by the World Bank’s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Repsol said the notification represented the formal start of legal action to have the nationalization declared illegal and Argentina obliged to reverse the decision and, or, compensate for it.

Both sides have six months to negotiate a solution before petitioning arbitration by the World Bank agency, Repsol said.

The Spanish company claims the nationalization violated several points of the Treaty for the Promotion and Protection of Investments, among them not providing adequate compensation.

Argentina’s government took a 51 percent controlling stake in YPF last month, with congress overwhelmingly approving the move in early May. The government claimed Repsol was not investing sufficiently in the country’s oil industry, an allegation the Spanish denies.

The seizure prompted criticism from Spain, the European Union, the United States and even some Latin American leaders.

The Spanish government has threatened to retaliate but so far it has only announced that it would promote domestic biodiesel fuel production, thereby reducing biodiesel imports from Argentina.

The move has conversely been highly popular in Argentina and is seen as a historic reassertion of national sovereignty.

Respol took control of the formerly state-owned YPF in the late 1990s. It said last month that YPF was worth $18.3 billion and valued Repsol’s stake at $10.5 billion.

Bolivia followed Argentina by nationalizing a Spanish company that owned most of its electricity grid this month but said it would pay compensation.
Repsol’s shares were down 1.5 percent at (EURO)13.60 ($17.47) in generally lower trading on Spain’s Ibex 35 index.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/05/15/3611173/repsol-starts-legal-action-against.html#storylink=cpy

SOURCE: KANSAS CITY

 The government aims to increase the biodiesel blending
requirement to 10 percent from 7 percent between May and
October, raising it by half a percentage point each month, El
Cronista said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan. 

No one was immediately available at the Agriculture Ministry
to comment on the report. 

 The objective of having a 10 percent blend was enshrined in
a law passed by Congress, but the mechanism for achieving this
was not specified. 

In related news, Madrid will cut its biodiesel imports from
Argentina in retaliation for the South American country’s move
to seize control of energy company YPF from Spain’s
Repsol. Spain is currently the top market for Argentine
biodiesel.   

 Argentina’s soy-based biodiesel exports surged 44 percent in
the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period of
2011, to total $554 million. The country is the biggest global
supplier of the “green” fuel. 

Private data shows Spain bought two-thirds of Argentina’s
biodiesel exports between January and March.�
�
 (Reporting by Maximiliano Rizzi; Writing by Hilary
Burke;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)REUTERS.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s Congress nationalized the country’s biggest oil company, YPF, by an overwhelming lower house vote on Thursday that underscored broad popular support for a measure that threatens to scare off foreign investment.

The Chamber of Deputies voted 207-32 in favor of expropriating YPF, clearing the way for President Cristina Fernandez to sign the bill into law. The Senate last week approved the measure by a similarly overwhelming margin.

Fernandez, who has tightened state control of the economy, unveiled the plan to seize a majority stake in YPF from Spain’s Repsol six months after her landslide re-election.

The move drew a swift reprisal from Spain, which curtailed Argentine biodiesel shipments. Wall Street warns that Argentina risks scaring off investment needed to bolster growth against fallout from Europe’s debt crisis and slower demand from key trade partner Brazil.

Business groups have long been put off by Fernandez’s policies, such as her government’s takeover of Argentina’s private pension system in 2008 and, more recently, import and foreign exchange controls that have hurt confidence.

Fernandez justifies the renationalization of YPF – which was privatized in the 1990s after decades as a state-owned company – on the grounds that it failed to boost oil and natural gas production needed to keep up with local demand.

Energy import bills have shot higher, putting Argentina’s prized trade surplus at risk.

Repsol denies under-investing, but the government’s message has struck a chord with Argentines, many of whom are suspicious of foreign companies and blame the free-market policies of the 1990s for setting the country up for its 2001/02 sovereign debt default and shock currency devaluation.

“All oil companies that operate in Argentina, Repsol and the rest, have to work in the public interest, which in this case means energy self sufficiency for Argentina,” Agustin Rossi, leader of the official bloc in the lower house, shouted during a speech to the chamber just before the vote.

“Repsol invested little in Argentina,” Rossi said. “But it was YPF and Argentine oil that financed Repsol’s growth around the world.”

With the private sector worried more nationalizations may be on the way, attention now turns to how much Argentina will pay Repsol for control of YPF. Officials have said it will be a lot less than the $9.3 billion the Spanish company wants.

Relieved of much of its debt burden after the 2001/02 default and bolstered by high international soy prices, the grains-exporting powerhouse fared better than many countries in weathering fallout from the 2008 world financial crises.

The government budget predicts 2012 gross domestic product growth of 5.1 percent, down from 8.9 percent last year.

“The goal is for YPF to be aligned with the interests of the country,” Fernandez said in a speech on Thursday.

“When corporate interests are not aligned with national interests, when companies are concerned only with profits, that’s when economies fail, which is what happened globally in 2008 and what happened to Argentina in 2001,” she said.

Citing similar arguments, Bolivian President Evo Morales this week nationalized the local unit of Spain’s Red Electrica Espanola, adding to the former colonial power’s concerns about investments in the region.

TARNISHED REPUTATION

While most of Fernandez’s local critics agree that YPF should be in state hands, some say her confrontational approach could harm the country’s already tarnished reputation abroad.

“It’s a good move for the country because if the government does not control strategic resources such as oil, it loses power,” said financial analyst Leonardo Rodriguez, 32, as he sipped a latté in the well-heeled Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero.

“But the approach used in taking over the company, without negotiating, was too jarring and authoritarian,” Rodriguez said. “There could be serious consequences. I mean, who wants to invest in a country where the government expropriates private property from one day to the next?”

A gifted public speaker who never appears in public without her trademark mascara and high heels, Fernandez has billed the YPF renationalization as central to her election pledges to deepen the interventionist policies began by her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner.

“The real custodians of his legacy are you,” she told supporters at a rally last week in Kirchner’s honor. “I know you will never permit a step backward.”

(Additional reporting by Helen Popper; Editing by David Gregorio and Ed Davies).REUTERS.

In a report titled Biofuels Markets and Technologies, futures analysis firm Pike Research estimates that production of biologically-based fuels (such as ethanol and biodiesel) will increase from $82.7 billion in 2011 to $185.3 billion by 2021, but will fall short of demand. Pike estimates demand will be in the 71.8 billion gallons per year (BGPY) area whereas production will fall short of that by several billion gallons. Current production worldwide is about 29.4 BGPY.

Pike estimates that 2021 total fuel usage will increase to about 375 BGPY for gasoline, 427 BGPY for diesel in ground transportation, and 200 BGPY for aviation globally. The biggest hurdles will be feedstocks for the fuels and the resulting shift towards more advanced technologies such as cellulosic production.

For comparison, current levels of ethanol production in the United States make up about 5 billion gallons per year, or about 70% of total world production. Nearly all U.S.-made ethanol is based on corn and if every corn ear grown in this country were diverted to making ethanol, it would only produce about 12% of the total gasoline actually used in this country.

Pike Research expects the Americas (the two largest producers of ethanol in the world are the U.S. followed by Brazil) to account for 71% of total global biofuels production for most of the 2012-2021 period. Global production of ethanol will reach 49.5 BGPY by 2021, Pike says, along with the following trends:

* Oil prices are expected to climb over the next decade, driving increased interest in biofuels.

* Wash-out from “Food versus Fuel” and “Indirect Land Use Change” will linger, shifting investor and policy focus from conventional to advanced biofuel pathways.

* Advanced biofuels seek near-term revenue, continuing the trend towards feedstock and end-product flexibility.

* Commercial airlines and the US military continue to emerge as key drivers of industry growth, signaling growing demand and attracting new investment into the industry.

* Genetic modification and feedstock optimization will improve outlook for non-food feedstock pathways, enabling new geographic expansion and accelerated commercialization.

* Number of off-take agreements with oil and chemical will increase, confirming the trend towards strategic partnerships.

* Mandates continue to integrate sustainability measures, setting benchmarks for market access and dictating terms for accessing financing.

* Production is expected to significantly outpace demand in some markets (e.g., Brazil) and fall short in others (e.g., China), increasing opportunities for global trade in ethanol and biodiesel.

It should be noted that the current most active financiers of biofuel production are petroleum companies, including all of the multinational oil conglomerates. Pike expects government stimulus investments to drop and for private financing to fill the gap.TORQUE NEWS.

Salicornia – The Way to Go Green

Together with experiments involving everything from clean coal to bacteria, there is a plant called Salicornia that is said to produce an oil, which can be refined into biodiesel, as stated in an energy magazine.

There are several advantages that come handy with the Salicornia. First, these plants are oil-rich and easy to grow; second, sea-based nurseries leave land free for food production; and third, the process should take out more carbon from the atmosphere than what it puts in. Hence, Salicornia would be the best option that could be used to create alternative energy source for commercial aviation.

Salicornia is also known as Pickleweed or Dwarf Saltwort. It’s flourishing far from the coast — in saltwater and sand tanks at NASA’s wind-turbine powered Green Lab near Cleveland-Hopkins airport.

Hopes from Algae

Algae are one of the world’s most common aquatic plants. Studies have already shown it to have great potentials to create oils for the food industry as well as for various fuels; making it an excellent replacement for fossil fuels.

Algae as both a food source and as a biofuel has been the subject of many projects all over the world; utilizing one of the earth’s most abundant plants that has been  supplying much of our oxygen as well as  food for marine life. Vegans get Omega 3 from algae sources.

Bilal Bomani said, “You know that hurricanes devastated Galveston, Texas.  When we went to Galveston, Texas, there was nothing there.  The oil fields were devastated, but we saw Salicornia all over the place!  It can actually help with the coast line, because it has nice root structure, and Salicornia has very thick roots.”

The Green Solution – Biofuel

Scientist Bilal Bomani said in a statement to a business magazine, “Salicornia is a green solution.  In order for a product to be considered green, there are three metrics that need to be satisfied”.  One, is it sustainable?  Bilal Bomani says, “Are you preserving what you’re doing for future use or for future generations”. Well, since unsustainable means eventual collapse, and this is in context to a global scale here, then sustainable means so there can be future generations.  Two, is it alternative, and clearly this is alternative. Is it different in what’s being used today, or does it have a lower carbon footprint than what’s used conventionally.  And three, is it renewable? Bilal Bomani future explains what exactly does renewable mean, saying, “Does it come from earth’s natural repulsing system like sun, water and air”.

The main reason that the aviation industry has been target here for the use of biofuel or biodiesel is because, the field of aviation i uses more fuel than by every other, combined, report business news. Hence, there is a need to find an alternative. It is expected that this alternative would produce biofuel using domestic and safe ‘friendly’ resources.

As we a quite aware that 97.5 percent of the earth water is saline. Why not use it? And the great news here is that entire process of producing biofuel works without precious resources such as fresh water or arable land. Even the fertilizer comes from an unlikely source: freshwater mollies, which can be converted to saltwater in a matter of hours.

Salicornias are cheap and they love to have babies.  And that’s why scientists at the Glenn Research Center are planning to use them.  And so, all we have to do is basically is seed one of the tanks outside with 50 mollies, and now each one has over 300.  And that lab’s been in existence since 2009, November.

Bilal Bomani’s Work

Back in the tropical, strong greenhouse at NASA Glenn, Bilal Bomani tends his plants and works to accelerate that bio-fueled future. He knows there are skeptics, disbelievers who doubt that the jets circling overhead will come to depend on what he’s growing. There have been criticizers who are curious to know what goes on in the Glenn Research Center. Bilal Bomani says, his top most reason to work on this project is that he wants to help ‘save the world’.

source: industry leaders magazine

Pacific Biodiesel “is the oldest biodiesel producer and refinery in the country, started in 1996,” said Vilsack during his remarks on Tuesday at the memorial, noting that USDA has provided assistance to help that company grow. “We provided recently a $5 million business and industry loan to Pacific Biodiesel to allow it to continue to expand its capacity.”

That loan, announced in February 2010, is being used to construct a $10 million, 5.5 million gallon per year biodiesel production plant in Kea’au on the Big Island. Pacific Biodiesel vice president and co-founder Kelly King says Big Island Biodiesel will be the companies 13th biodiesel plant. “We’ll be owning and operating five of them, the other ones we built for clients throughout the mainland, from the east coast to the west coast,” she says, with capacity ranging from a half million to six million gallons.

“We started in Maui, where we actually had the first available biodiesel pump for the public,” said King. “Back then, most of our customers were environmental hippies who would come and pay 70 cents a gallon more for fuel and thank us and tell us to keep the change!”

King says Pacific Biodiesel operates on a community-based sustainable model set up locally to benefit local communities. While all the plants can use any type of oil feedstocks, much of them operate on used cooking oil. “It can use the most degraded oils up to the purest oils,” she said. “The degraded oils make the best feedstock because it’s the cheapest!”

King and two of her Pacific Biodiesel team members were excited to be part of the secretary’s appearance at Pearl Harbor and to have him recognize the importance of renewable fuels in the Aloha State.DOMESTIC FUEL.

The proposed sites for development are in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and will use an Algae Enhancement Technology, the GB3000 system, employed for growing algae for the production of fish feed, proteins and biofuel. Prime Inc India’s current clients include Exxon, Shell, General Electric (GE) and Siemens.

“We look forward to working with Prime Inc India in the design, development and support of a cost-efficient algae production farm,” Liran Kosman, CFO of WHEN, said. “We anticipate scaling up operations and completing a number of significant algae projects in 2012.”

World Health recently acquired GNE-India, an algae technology firm with the distribution and licensing rights to a unique and innovative technology, the GNE GB 3000 system, to grow algae quickly and efficiently to produce biodiesel and commercial fish food protein. GNE-India owns and retains the territorial rights for distribution and sales of the proprietary technology in India and Sri Lanka.

The company enjoys exclusive distribution and licensing rights to the GNE GB 3000 system in India and Croatia.

In 2011, the GB 3000 system was used to grow local algae species like spirulina, as well as chlorella, for fish feed and biodiesel markets, Biodiesel Magazine reports.

WHEN is focused on biofuels produced from algae because, the company explains, it gives substantially higher yields in comparison to ethanol derived from corn, rapeseed, jatropha and palm oil. The company also works with enterprises producing progressive, broad-based solutions for better physical, nutritional and environmental health worldwide.

In addition, World Health is pursuing another use of algae: the efficient production of high-protein fish feed for commercial fish farms.By Natalia Real.FIS.

The ASA highlighted accomplishments it made in several specific areas, including policy and advocacy, and domestic and international use of soy. Under the heading of policy and advocacy, the ASA noted it doggedly supported the biodiesel industry in an effort to extend the biodiesel tax credit in 2011, which helped the industry reach record biodiesel production levels in 2011. According to the ASA, it also worked alongside the United Soybean Board, U.S. Soybean Export Council, and soy exporters in an effort to maintain access for U.S. soybean exports to the EU that would otherwise be negatively affected by the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. The ASA also noted that the U.S. government and the EU have agreed to enter into bilateral negotiations on how U.S. soybeans can be deemed compliant with RED requirements. In addition, the ASA efforts in the 2008 Farm Bill helped to establish the USDA’s BioPreferred program, a voluntary biobased product labeling program.

Regarding the use of soy, the ASA said record biodiesel production levels achieved in 2011 were the direct result of efforts by the National Biodiesel Board, the biodiesel industry and the ASA in supporting the development of a renewable fuel standard for biodiesel and extending the tax incentive through the end of 2011. In its statement, the ASA also noted its efforts have been supported by strong soybean checkoff investments in research and promotion.

The ASA also noted several key policy issues it intends to focus on in 2012, including defending the biodiesel portion of the renewable fuel standard and supporting the extension of the biodiesel tax incentive. The association also plans to work to maintain market access in the EU by addressing the treatment of U.S. soybeans under the RED.

A full list of the ASA’s 2011 accomplishments can be downloaded from the organization’s website.BIODIESEL MAGAZINE.

According to a statement released by Evogene, the impetus behind establishing the subsidiary is due to the need for diversifying feedstock supply to fulfill worldwide demand of biodiesel, which currently relies mainly on edible oils such as soybeans and canola.

Originally launched in 2007, Evogene’s biofuel activity targets the development of second-gen feedstocks to serve as sustainable, viable and cost-effective sources of oil for the burgeoning global biodiesel industry. In addition to its castor bean seed development and commercialization efforts, the company stated that it “intends to broaden its activity to additional potential feedstocks for the biodiesel, biojet and ethanol markets.”

“With the biofuel industry’s continued growth and tremendous demand for cost-competitive feedstock, there is a strong and immediate need for a solution based on designated second-generation seed products,” said Ofer Haviv, president and CEO of Evogene. “The establishment of Evofuel as a separate company strongly positions it to address this substantial unmet need. We are reinforced by the progress and results of our castor seed in Brazil and believe that access to Evogene’s leading plant genomics capabilities will provide Evofuel with commercial advantages and opportunities in relevant markets.”

The formation of Evofuel follows on the heels of Evogene successfully completing field trials for its advanced castor varieties in Brazil in cooperation with SLC Agricola S.A., a leading agribusiness firm in the country, which will be cultivated for biodiesel feedstock. Under the expanded agreement, Evogene and SLC Agricola intend to continue to evaluate Evogene’s castor varieties at its farm locations in Brazil. The goal is to identify the best performing varieties and agronomic practices suitable for commercial-scale production.

In addition to Brazil and Israel, field trials of castor been cultivars are also being conducted in the U.S.; most notably at Texas A&M University. Additional collaborators in the program include NASA and Honeywell’s UOP.

In mid-2010, Evogene announced that biobased jet fuel produced using its castor varieties met international standards for alternative aviation fuels. The testing was completed in collaboration with NASA and Honeywell’s UOP. Also in 2010, the company announced that a life-cycle analysis of biodiesel using its castor varieties demonstrated a 90 percent greenhouse gas reduction when compared to petroleum.BIODIESEL MAGAZINE.