18/2/07 (Inquirer.net)  Philippine - MALAYSIAN firm Biogreen Energy Sdn Bhd is preparing to sign an agreement with PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. (PNOC-AFC) on the establishment of a jatropha nursery and plantation in two different locations in the country.

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Biogreen director Wong Chee Meng said the memorandum of understanding between his company and PNOC-AFC had already been drafted after four to six months of discussions.

The MOU should be signed some time within this month, he said.

Should the signing push through, he said contract detailing would start by March and would take around one or two months.

Details to be discussed would include the land that would be used for the planned seedling nurseries and jatropha plantations, seedling supply, crude oil processing for both local consumption and export, and biodiesel pricing, he said.

Under the MOU, he said Biogreen should be able to produce about 30 million seedlings within two years in each of the two locations that would be agreed upon by the two parties.

This should be enough to supply seedlings for PNOC-AFC's planned 700,000 hectares of jatropha plantations all over the country.

"The Philippines is an important site for us. We've already conducted a feasibility study in cooperation with PNOC-AFC, and there is so much potential here. The competitiveness of the Philippines is there," he said. "We're looking at (Asia as a whole) because we believe that the oil it can produce will greatly help its economy."

He said Biogreen and PNOC-AFC should finalize their contract within the first half and start implementing it within 2007.

The establishment of a biodiesel refinery was also on the drawing board, he said, although it was not part of current negotiations between Biogreen and PNOC-AFC.

In an earlier interview, PNOC-AFC president Peter Anthony Abaya said that apart from Biogreen, among those interested in undertaking biodiesel-related projects were Korea's Samsung Corp., Japan's Sumitomo Corp. and JGC, the US' National Biofuels, Malaysia's HDZ, and Brunei National Petroleum Co.

Local firms Chemrez Technologies Inc., Limketkai Manufacturing Co., Enerfuse (composed of new oil players Flying V, Unioil Petroleum Philippines Inc., Seaoil Philippines Inc. and Eastern Petroleum Corp.), Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Petron Corp. are also considering biodiesel projects.

He said National Biofuels was looking at two 200,000-metric ton (MT) refineries, HDZ, two refineries, PetroleumBrunei, one biodiesel plant, Chemrez, one refinery on its own and one in partnership with PNOC-AFC, and Limketkai, one 100,000-MT plant.

Limketkai, an edible oil producer, was actually considering giving up its current business to shift to producing biodiesel from jatropha, he said.

PNOC-AFC had already signed a memorandum of understanding with Samsung for an P8.2-billion jatropha plantation and refinery project. It also disclosed that Sumitomo had agreed to conduct a feasibility study on the establishment of a biofuels central terminal in Bataan