Mission Biofuels signs MOU with East River Energy

Following its recent agreements to enter the Chinese biodiesel market, Australia’s Mission Biofuels has inked a deal giving it access to jatropha plantations in India, which will provide low-cost feedstock for the company’s plants in Malaysia and China. This gives Mission Biofuels immediate access to 25,000 metric tons of low-cost feedstock, immediate access to expansion in plantation acreage and access to the energy hungry Indian market, it said. In China, Mission signed a memorandum of understanding for a production agreement with East River Energy Resources and Science Technology (Zhejiang) Limited in March. Under the terms of the MoU, East River Energy would reserve up to 30,000 metric tons per year of the plant’s capacity for use by Mission. Mission has also signed a letter of intent with regional oil products marketer Wuhan PetroChina Lubricant Company Limited, part of the state-owned PetroChina group, for a put option under which Mission could supply up to 2,000 metric tons per month of biodiesel on a take-or-pay basis at a price based on the published PetroChina daily wholesale mineral diesel price. (March 12, 2007)