Archived News

05/12/2007 (Daily Times, Pakistan), Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian exports grew at the fastest annual pace in nearly a year in October, as strong sales of palm oil and crude oil offset modest demand for electronics, government data showed on Tuesday.

06/12/2007 (newindpress.com), Kozhikode - The LDF, various youth organisations and farmers’ outfits have called a hartal in Beypore panchayat on Thursday to protest against the import of palm oil at the Beypore port.

05/12/2007 (Channel News Asia), Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas is considering developing biofuels in view of the growing popularity of the renewable energy source, a report said Wednesday.

07/12/2007 (Bangkok Post) - In response to His Majesty the King\'s speech underlying the importance of biodiesel, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has come up with a plan to make the 436 schools under its supervision points of purchase for used vegetable oil to promote the fuel\'s production. The plan was announced two days after the King made his speech.

07/12/2007 (The Statesman, India) - Bio-fuel could be part of the solution to climate change, also can be part of a strategy to limit fuel use

04/12/2007 (Reuters), New Delhi - A drop in global prices of soy and palm oils will have little impact on import volumes in December by India's private trade, but more of the purchases will be of palm, traders said on Tuesday.

05/12/2007 (The Star Online), Petaling Jaya - Crude palm oil (CPO) prices yesterday dipped below RM2,900 a tonne for the first time in two months as a retreating crude oil price dented sentiment.

03/12/2007 (Emagazine.com) - The world’s major palm oil producers last week announced that they have created a new certification process to ensure ongoing sustainable production and the protection of the world’s remaining tropical rainforests. While details of the new standards as put forth by the industry-led Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) were not disclosed, Reuters reports that participating palm oil producers have agreed to commit to “preserve rainforests and wildlife, avoid conflicts with indigenous people and improve palm oil yields” by early 2008.

29/11/2007 (Biodiesel Magazine) - In 2007, Europe and the United States were the leading biodiesel producers. Heading into 2008, Biodiesel Magazine takes a look at which countries are struggling and which show potential.

28/11/2007 (Mongabay.com) - A lifecycle analysis of biodiesel by Australia\'s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) shows that using palm oil derived from existing plantations can be an effective biofuel feedstock for reducing greenhouse gas emissions relative to conventional diesel fuel. However, palm oil sourced from rainforest and peatlands generating emissions 8 to 21 times greater than those from diesel.

29/12/2007 (Time) - On a recent humid morning in Riau, a province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a young man named Suranto wakes early on a Sunday, wraps a red T shirt around his head and ambles off to the fields to work. Suranto isn't a local; he has come from northern Sumatra because there are jobs in Riau. The forests and peatlands of the area are being transformed into plantations, and workers are being paid to plant tens of thousands of young oil-palm trees in fields stripped bare of their native vegetation by burning. As Suranto stoops and digs one hole after another amid the blackened stumps of an old tropical forest, he looks like a camp follower picking through the detritus of a still-smoldering battlefield.

03/12/2007 (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) - Bio fuels are controversial. Proponents point to their climate neutral character; the growing plants have already absorbed the carbon dioxide released during burning, but opponents point out that the production of bio fuels carries enormous societal costs and causes ecological damage. Let\'s weigh the pros and cons.