Malaysia cuts supply by burning palm oil as fuelKUALA LUMPUR, June 13, Agence France Presse (AFP) - Malaysia has managedto cut palm oil stocks by 400,000 tonnes to 1.1 million tonnes after itstarted to burn the commodity to generate electricity from late April, areport said Wednesday.The move to use crude palm oil at power plants belonging to state-ownedTenaga Nasional has lifted the current depressed market, said AbdullahTahir, secretary-general of the primary industries ministry."We hope the project will succeed in reducing the national stock to onemillion tonnes by end of the year," Abdullah was quoted as saying by theBusiness Times newspaper.Abdullah dismissed reports of power generators being damaged by burningthe oil, saying that the initiative has been proven to be technicallyfeasible by both Tenaga and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.The newspaper said the program was limited because 80 percent of Tenaga'spower generators are currently gas-fired.Crude palm oil must be blended with either diesel or medium fuel oil forburning at power stations. Tenaga's power plant in the northern state ofPenang is the only one still powered by medium fuel oil.Malaysia, the world's largest palm oil producer, has watched with dismayas the price plunged from a high of 2,377 ringgit (626 dollars) a tonne in1998 to around 800 ringgit currently.The government has also begun a replanting project as part of efforts toreduce stocks and lift sagging prices.