10/12/2014 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Felda Global Ventures Holdings, the world's third-largest palm plantation operator, plans to more than triple its production of palm-based biodiesel over the next two years, with a third of it expected to be consumed locally.

Felda Global's output of palm methyl ester (PME) will be increased from the current 100,000 tonnes annually to 350,000 tonnes by 2016, Chief Executive Officer Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah said on Tuesday.

While 70 percent of that will be exported, a part of the domestic portion will be blended to power Felda's fleet of 450 tankers - first with B30, a formula that uses four times the amount of palm oil content compared to B7 in the subsidised biodiesel sector, before moving into 100 percent palm oil.

"After further testing has been completed, we plan to begin using B30 biodiesel in Felda Global Ventures' fleet operations in stages in 2015," Mohd Emir told reporters.

The B100 blend will be fed to the trucks used to transport Felda's crude palm oil from mills to refiners or straight to port for export by end-2016 or 2017, Mohd Emir said.

He added that the higher blend of PME would reduce the company's dependence on fossil fuels.

Crude palm oil is being increasingly used as a "green" additive to crude oil as it can cut costs and reduce environmentally damaging emissions.