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

* Spanish biodiesel producers accuse Argentina of dumping

By Maximilian Heath/BUENOS AIRES, June 29 (Reuters) – Argentine biodiesel producers fear their top buyer Spain could soon curb imports of the fuel, hitting revenues and forcing them to find new markets, industry leaders said on Wednesday.

Spain’s government is expected to take steps aimed at forcing biodiesel buyers to purchase the fuel from European producers to stem the flood of cheap imports from countries such as Argentina, a leading global exporter.

The measures would deal a hard blow to Argentine biodiesel exporters who last year shipped some $515 million worth of the fuel to the European country.

“Trade hurdles are always a cause for concern, especially since Spain is one of the main buyers of Argentine biodiesel,” said Claudio Molina, head of the Argentine Association of Biofuels and Hydrogen (AABH).

Spain has been working on the measure for months, and industry sources told Reuters the change will likely be enforced in the near future.

Argentina is the world’s No. 1 exporter of soyoil, from which it produces biodiesel, and soy products account for nearly a quarter of total exports. [ID:nLDE6B51W2]

According to Spain’s Association of Renewable Energy Producers (APPA), the country imported some 437,000 tonnes of biodiesel from Argentina in 2010, which represented about 32 percent of the South American country’s exports.

“This is a measure that, the day it gets approved, will cause a serious economic damage to the (biodiesel) sector in Argentina,” said energy analyst Gustavo Idigoras.

However, Jorge Hilbert, who works for the bioenergy unit of the state’s INTA agriculture institute, said Spain’s measures would only have a minor impact on Argentine exporters, because demand for the fuel is strong.

“Over 70 percent of biodiesel plants in Europe are not producing at the moment. They’re small, inefficient plants. We’ve got the raw material and an efficient industry,” Hilbert said. [ID:nLDE66J0EK]

European biodiesel producers say Argentina’s differentiated system of export taxes — aimed at attracting investment in industry — gives Argentine producers an unfair advantage.

Biodiesel exports are taxed at 20 percent in Argentina, while shipments of soyoil pay a levy of 32 percent.

Plentiful soybean oil supplies, low costs and a favorable export tax regime have spurred a rapid increase in production capacity in Argentina, which began exporting biodiesel in significant quantities just four years ago. [ID:nN07121651] (Writing by Eduardo Garcia;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid).REUTERS.

The South American country is one of the biggest global exporters of biodiesel, made using soyoil. Argentina is also the world’s No.1 soyoil and soymeal supplier.

The new plant will have capacity to produce 300,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year, matching what Dreyfus produces at a similar facility near Rosario, a company official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. (Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Writing by Hilary Burke; Editing by Marguerita Choy)REUTERS.

Argentina is expected to produce 2.3 million metric tons of biodiesel, made from soybeans, this year, up 27 percent from 2010, Oil World said in a report today. Exports may total 1.5 million tons, according to the report. In Brazil, biodiesel output may gain 14 percent, Oil World said.

“The available global supplies of vegetable oils and animal fats are insufficient to satisfy all the requirements of the energy sector without jeopardizing satisfaction of demand for food,” Oil World said. “This is going to be a supportive factor for oils and fats prices.”

Argentina’s soybean oil exports rose 100,000 tons to 1.2 million tons from January through April, partly because of rising requirements for biodiesel production, Oil World said. Indonesian production of the biofuel may rise to at least 800,000 tons by the end of 2011, most of which will be exported to the European Union, according to the report.

“Accelerating usage of vegetable oils for biodiesel could create scarcity and appreciating food oil prices later this year, unless policy-makers start fine-tuning their policies of biofuel-usage mandates,” Oil World said.

China will buy more vegetable oils after domestic stocks fell 800,000 tons in the past 12 months, Oil World said. Chinese imports may increase 20 percent to 3 million tons from July through September as palm oil and soy oil purchases rise, according to the report.

“There are several indications that world production will not rise sufficiently during the remainder of this year to satisfy global demand for food and for oleochemical usage as well as for the energy sector,” Oil World said.BLOOMBERG

“By the end of 2011 is expected to produce 3,200,000 tons of biofuel as an exportable surplus will leave about two million tonnes. The rest will be input for the domestic market, “said the coordinator of the National Bioenergy National Institute of Technology Agropecuaria (INTA) Jorge Hilbert.

The top five world producers of biodiesel are Germany, USA, France, Argentina and Brazil. In this context, Argentina is the top producer, is the leading exporter of soybean oil and the second of biofuels. The international workshop was focused on “the application of technologies for producing biofuels. ”

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Institute of Economics and Sociology (IES) of INTA, the federal capital.BIODIESEL HOY.

“First there was a big debate between EBB’s Rafaello Garraffolo and CADER’s Alfredo Langesfeld.  It was short and sweet. Freddie asked EBB – you don’t have enough land for biodiesel, why not use ours from Argentina?  Rafaello ducked, dodged, deflected, and blamed splash n dash and overcapacity (same as Jobe on overcapacity). Amusing.

“The UNICA presentation was excellent, and they noted Brazil has a $28 Billion ethanol industry, with 465 mills and 70,000 sugar cane farms. UNICA said Sugar cane fields represent only 3% of Brazil’s arable land, and is grown 2,000 miles from the rainforest a misconception. In 2011, the country is expanding into biobutanol, biojet & renewable diesel fuels.

“GRFA’s Bliss Baker talked about his alliance with Rob Verhiout of Ebio (now Epure), RFA’s Dinneen, Canada Renewable Fuel Association, CADER, Australia, and working on getting Unica. I shared a panel with the President of Fedepalma, and the soy crowd didn’t know what to think of the palm and algae advocates, were a bit stunned but polite.”

SOURCE: BIOFUELS DIGEST

The road to 2011 has seen a ramp-up in production with Argentina’s biodiesel output totalling 1.5 million tonnes in the first ten months of 2010, up 56.8% on the year. The country exported 76.7% of the output.

Its biodiesel exports rose 22.4% to 1.12 million tonnes. However, recent regulatory interference in the domestic biodiesel market is freezing some investments in new plants, local energy consultancy IES warns.

The government has not updated the domestic biodiesel prices since September 2010.

source: low carbon economy

Urgente24 reported 8 / 11 that negotiations were between the producers and the government to unfreeze the internal value of biodiesel derived from soybean (see related). However, the conflict would come to an end for the pressures of the association that brings together workers in the sector.

Biodiesel.com.ar site reported, the update of prices was rushed by a demonstration of the Union of Petroleum private gas and biofuels San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, which warned of the effect of this freeze on jobs.

“It is the role of union leaders to defend the workers, the union is the only
tool that workers have to enforce their rights, “said Ruben Perez, secretary general of the union, who at the situation of the sector had said that SMEs are planning advanced suspensions and holidays for staff. “We prepared all the logistics to make roadblocks,” he threatened.

But after a meeting with the national government with De Vido and Javier Urquiza coordinator of the National Biofuels Program of the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, an agreement was reached.

“We made it clear that defending the workers, there were formal commitment from that in 10 days will fix the problem and fixed the prices of biofuels for oil companies, which as so far not been published to increase the price of soybeans , the companies lost about $ 30,000 “was what he said the unionist.

Thus, the price is set at $ 3,920 to $ 4,200 in November and December. Currently the price is $ 3,769 a tonne, equivalent to 1,136 liters, for the domestic market catering to oil companies.

Exports grow

Biodiesel exports between January and October this year accumulated a total of U.S. $ 994 million, a 37.8% higher than those recorded in 2009, even though the court did not apply to diesel oil required for domestic consumption, implemented by the Law 26.093 .

At this rate, exports of biofuel end the year at around U.S. $ 1,200 million, which would be above the value of exports of gas oil, gasoline and fuel oil.

During the meeting of the value chain of the Biofuels organized by the Argentina Association of Biofuels and Hydrogen, is recalled that the industry’s installed capacity is 2 million tonnes of production and new investment grows up.

Speaking of the prospects for biofuel production, the engineer Fernando Peláez anticipated that in 2010, are being exported one million tons of biodiesel, plus the placement of 300 thousand tons in the domestic market.

The mandatory cut gas oil to biodiesel began the first day of 2010 with five percent in the aggregate to fossil fuel equivalent to about 600 thousand tons of biodiesel.

This summer, the cut was extended to 7% given the installed capacity of the manufacturing industry and domestic market needs.

Globally, Argentina ranks fourth in the production of biodiesel after Germany, France, and close to Brazil.

But, it is estimated that the leadership in the production and export of biodiesel for Argentina is in full expansion phase with a potential market in the world where demand is growing.

“Argentina’s biodiesel industry will have a sustained growth in the dissertation Peláez ventured.

Source Urgente 24

BIODIESEL BLOGSPOT

BIODIESEL NEWS

Researchers from the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Concepción (UdeC), based in Chillán, will begin a project that focuses on the cultivation of oleic microalgae for the manufacture of biofuels tomorrow.

According to Jose Fernando Reyes, academic and director of technology and research at UdeC, this is “a project whose concept does not exist in Chile at this time.”

The initiative ‘Development of high conversion reactor for microalgae cultivation and oleic biodiesel production’ is funded by Innova Bío Bío of the Corporation for the Promotion of Production (Corfo), the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Bío Bío (Cidere Bío Bío) and the Institute for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship (ITE). The total project cost will exceed CLP 300 million (USD 600,000)

The new technology allows for “scaling of highly efficient photobioreactors.” This means that from microscopic photosynthetic algae culture (Scenedesmus spinosus), oil is generated which can then be used in the manufacture of biodiesel.

Jose Fernando Reyes, academic and director of technology and research at UdeC. (Photo. UDEC)�
“For this we developed and are evaluating photobioreactors with improved engineering that enable the production of microalgae, manufacturing costs and operating economically attractive for the production of biodiesel,” said Reyes.

The concept behind the project is to improve the efficiency of using natural light, covered by high light transmissibility and methods of highly turbulent air agitation to prevent the adhesion of microalgae to the inside walls of pipes, as well as maximizing efficiency from light-shade exposure, reports La Discusión.

The pilot plant located in Chillán has seven photobioreactors of 1.5 cubic meters each. In the course of the experiment, experts expect a productivity gain of no less than 10 cubic meters of biodiesel per hectare.

The team consists of Wilson Esquivel, Johannes de Brujin and Alejandro Hernández, as well as Reyes.

According to Marcos Delucchi, the manager of Cidere Bío Bío, at a national level, through this initiative, they aim to improve the relationship between biology and engineering in the development of a new alternative energy for the country.

By Analia Murias

SOURCE: FIS WORLDNEWS