Deputy chief executive of Neste Oil, Jarmo Honkamaa, announced on January 15, 2008 that the Finnish oil refiner’s biodiesel plant in Singapore, its largest, will be operational 2010 and initially cater to Europe’s growing biofuel requirement.
The company’s investment of 550 million euros to build the plant, which will have an annual capacity of 800,000 tons, is in line with its strategy to become the world’s leading producer of diesel from renewable feedstock. It is anticipating that demand will grow rapidly in developed economies.
Demand for biodiesel in Europe is currently around 6-8 million tons annually and is expected to grow to 13-15 million tons by 2010.
“It keeps growing because in Europe there is a legislation in place that by 2010, 5.75 percent of energy content of gasoline and diesel needs to be bio-based,” said Jarmo Honkamaa.
