NOVOZYMES SAYS ITALY PLANT HERALDS BIOFUEL FUTURE
COPENHAGEN, April 12 (Reuters) - Construction of an advanced biofuels plant in Italy marks a step closer to producing a commercial alternative energy to carbon-emitting petroleum, an executive at Danish enzymes supplier Novozymes said.
Italian chemicals group Mossi & Ghisolfi Group (M&G) broke ground on a 13 million gallons per year (50 mln litres) plant at Crescentino in northwest Italy on Tuesday, and said the cost of the ethanol produced there would be competitive with gasoline.
HIGHER BIOFUEL BLEND TO STAY, GERMAN MINISTER SAYS
HAMBURG, April 12 (Reuters) - Gasoline with a higher biofuel content must stay on sale in Germany despite a hostile reaction to the new blend by motorists, Germany's Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer said on Tuesday.
"This is a political wish and oil companies will receive fines if they do not deliver the required volumes," Ramsauer said.
The German government this year raised the maximum permitted level of bioethanol blended in gasoline to 10 percent from 5 percent as part of German's programme to protect the environment.
MKT DOUBTS BRAZIL CAN SACRIFICE SUGAR FOR ETHANOL
SAO PAULO, April 12 (Reuters) - Local cane mills, world sugar markets and analysts were unmoved by the Brazilian government's threats to boost ethanol output by any means, saying ideas of a sugar export tax or credit limits would be hard to implement or ineffectual.
Brazilian ministers last week began floating early proposals for an industrial policy shift aimed at stimulating local ethanol supplies to bring down local fuel prices. Such measures, if successful, would likely redirect cane away from sugar production in a country that controls half of global trade in the sweetener.
US ETHANOL REFORM MAY HITCHHIKE ON MUST-PASS BILL
WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Reform of biofuel subsidies that cost $6 billion a year could hitch-hike its way to enactment on a must-pass spending bill, leaders of two ethanol trade groups said on Monday.
They said the industry generally agrees on reforms that would replace the 45-cent-a-gallon tax credit that is the major incentive to produce corn-based ethanol, the major biofuel now being produced.
USDA AIMS TO BOOST SALES OF HIGH-BLEND ETHANOL
WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Friday it will provide incentives to U.S. gasoline stations to install more pumps with a higher blend of ethanol in an effort to boost consumption of the renewable fuel.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the administration hoped to install 10,000 flexible fuel pumps nationwide in the next five years.
USDA CHANGES CORN WORDING AFTER ETHANOL MAKERS COMPLAIN
WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. government introduced new wording on corn use on Friday following complaints from ethanol makers that they were not getting credit for the corn byproducts that are fed to livestock.
Instead of saying "corn for ethanol" in its monthly report, the U.S. Agriculture Department now spells out the corn is going to produce ethanol and byproducts. A footnote saying byproducts include distillers' grains, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal and corn oil.
BRAZIL TO FOCUS STATE LOANS ON ETHANOL, NOT SUGAR
SAO PAULO, April 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's government plans to prioritize state lending for cane mills that focus on ethanol rather than sugar in a bid to boost supply and stabilize prices for consumers, Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Friday.
The high international cost of sugar has led Brazilian millers to reduce output of the biofuel, aggravating the usual seasonal rise in ethanol price at a time when policy-makers are increasingly concerned about inflation.
PETROBRAS ASKED TO BOOST ETHANOL OUTPUT:MINISTER
BRASILIA, April 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's Energy Ministry Edison Lobao said on Friday he has asked state-run oil company Petrobras to get more involved in the production of ethanol.
That request is part of a broader package of measures meant to boost ethanol production and reduce price volatility for consumers.
BRAZIL ETHANOL POLICY TO CHANGE IN NEXT WEEKS-AGMIN
BRASILIA, April 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's government will probably introduce changes to ethanol policy over the coming days and weeks in order to protect supplies of the fuel, Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said on Thursday.
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) "will likely" be in charge of overseeing the sector in the hopes of boosting production, he said at a news conference.
BRAZIL ETHANOL POLICY TO CHANGE IN NEXT WEEKS-AGMIN
BRASILIA, April 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's government should introduce changes to ethanol policy over the coming days and weeks, Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said on Thursday.
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) "will likely" be in charge of overseeing the sector in the hopes of boosting production, he said at a news conference.
BRAZIL EYES ETHANOL REFORM, SUGAR COMPANIES HIT
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, April 6 (Reuters) - Brazil wants to tighten regulation of the domestic ethanol market to protect fuel supplies, a senior government official said on Wednesday, a move that could ripple through global sugar markets.
President Dilma Rousseff has instructed Brazil's National Oil Agency, or ANP, to draft regulations that will treat ethanol as a "strategic fuel" and no longer as an agricultural commodity, Haroldo Lima, the agency's director, told Reuters.
US ETHANOL OUTPUT NEARLY STEADY, MARGINS HOLD
KANSAS CITY, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. ethanol production held steady in the week to April 1, as profit margins for producers remained viable despite rising prices for corn, the key ingredient in the alternative fuel.
Ethanol output totaled 902,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending April 1, down 1,000 bpd from the prior week, Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.
BRAZIL ETHANOL SHARES DOWN ON REGULATORY CONCERNS
SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, April 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian biofuels shares posted their biggest tumble in two months on Wednesday on concern President Dilma Rousseff's government will toughen oversight of the sector to control supply and prices.
Brazil's oil and energy industry watchdog ANP is considering broadening oversight of the ethanol sector in the hopes of boosting production, ANP President Haroldo Lima told Reuters on Wednesday.
BIOTECH DEINOVE EYES U.S., BRAZIL ETHANOL
PARIS, April 5 (Reuters) - French green biotech firm Deinove , which hopes to use a 4 billion year old bacterium to develop the fuel of the future, is eyeing new projects in the United States and Brazil, its chief executive told Reuters.
The company is talks with a large U.S. ethanol maker and with Tereos Internacional , a Brazil-based unit of France's Tereos group, to develop a bioethanol based not only on food but also on a bacterium named deinococcus, discovered in a U.S. corned beef tin in 1956, Deinove CEO Jacques Biton said.
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