Thai Oil forms Maesod Clean Energy

Thai Oil Plc, with partners Padaeng Industry Plc (PDI), Southeast Asia’s only zinc smelter operator and Petrogreen Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Mitr Phol Sugar Group, has created a new company called Maesod Clean Energy Co. to build a 1.5-billion-baht (US$40.03 million) ethanol plant in Mae Sot, Tak province in northern Thailand. Thai Oil, the country’s largest petroleum oil refiner and supplier, will own 30% of Measod Clean Energy while PDI and Petrogreen will own 35% respectively. Commercial operations for the factory, which will produce 100,000 liters of ethanol a day from sugarcane juice, will commence in 2009. “The venture will lift Thai Oil’s total ethanol production capacity to 600,000 liters a day in 2009 and enhance our business opportunities in terms of having more options for raw materials,” Thai Oil’s Managing Director Viroj Mavichak said. (October 12, 2006)