MALAYSIA STARTS BURNING CRUDE PALM OIL FOR ENERGY

PRAI, Malaysia, April 16 (Reuters) - Malaysia on Monday officiallylaunched the burning of crude palm oil (CPO) as an energy source in a moveto support prices and ease stocks."This project has been formulated as a safety net for the Malaysianpalm oil industry during low prices so that farmers and others involved inthe industry are given a fair and remunerative price," a joint statementby Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik and Energy Minister LeoMoggie said.The two ministers on Monday witnessed the burning of CPO mixed withmedium fuel oil at state power firm Tenaga Nasional's plant in the Praidistrict of northern Penang state.The event was held to convince the pessimistic palm oil industry thatCPO can be burned as a fuel in power plants.Malaysia aims to burn around 400,000 tonnes of CPO as industrial fuelthis year. So far about 2,000 tonnes of CPO had been delivered to Tenaga,which plans to burn about 50,000 tonnes each month from now on, officialssaid.Malaysia wants to lift palm oil prices to 950 ringgit ($250) a tonnethis year by taking at least one million tonnes of oil from the market,which saw record high stocks of 1.52 million tonnes last November becauseof poor exports.Apart from the Tenaga burning, it plans to replant 200,000 hectares ofplantation areas, which yield 600,000 tonnes.The benchmark third-month July palm oil futures contract was quoted at829 ringgit a tonne at 0900 GMT on Monday.Malaysia is the world's largest palm oil producer, but quotas in Chinaand an Indian import duty have slowed exports and seen some switching frompalm oil to soybean oil.