The main activity of Biofuels is the large scale production and exploitation of biodiesel and glycerine following the construction and commissioning of the initial plant.

Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils and, as an environmentally friendly product, can make a significant contribution towards reducing green house gases and meeting Kyoto targets.



RNS's from BFC can be viewed at:

http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/index?search_type=3&words=bfc&go.x=17&go.y=8

http://www.biofuelscorp.com/

Like I said, 100p here we come.
wilbs

wilbs - nice pics

Its good to see the progress on their site. August is only 6 weeks away.
wilbs

Must be some news leaking out somewhere of a poss contract???
wilbs

Could be, but more likely to be Friday short closing in an illiquid stock...

Bush was talking about the need to invest in other sourses of energy, biofuels ..etc

talking about what ?

Edging to 100p. Next week should be interesting.

I live in the Algarve,Portugal where the largest concentration of eucalyptus trees is to be found,in Europe.
For the last three years there has been systematic,criminal activity resulting in the destruction of 5% of Portugal's forests,most damage occuring to the eucalyptus plantations.As Portugal was grossly ill equipped to cut and transport such an enormous quantity of burnt timber,the job was farmed out to the old enemy,Spain....believed to be the brains behind the forest fires.The Spanish contractors bought the timber at below market prices and then sold it on for a tidy profit.
Spanish companies BOUGHT thousands of hectares of burnt Portuguese eucalyptus plantations at absurdly cheap prices and it is said that the next crop of trees which will be cut in about eight years'time ,will be processed by German companies( who will buy the timber directly from Spanish owners)and used to make bio-diesel.The Portuguese stand to lose all of the benefits that their eucalyptus plantations could have brought to them!
This is a conspiracy theory doing the rounds at the moment...but I brought it to your attention in order to offer eucalyptus as an alternative source of bio-diesel to palm,rapeseed etc.

Since Eucalyptus rawstock seems to involve destroying the tree and I imagine the trees take some years to grow to maturity, I do not see how this can compete, as a renewable source of bio-fuel feedstock, with annual crop-bearing sources, like palm oil and jatropha beans.

Keep the trees and attract bees and tourists with them - it will be more profitable for the Portuguese landowners I am sure.

sd

Biofuels surges on talk of refinancing deal

Biofuels Corporation surged 25pc yesterday as dealers speculated that the biodiesel group was negotiating a refinancing package.

The talk was that the company, which is paying about 1m a month in a hedging agreement which overestimated diesel prices, is trying to agree more favourable terms with Barclays bank.

Biofuels shares have crashed since the company revealed on April 29 that prices in Germany - its key market - were lower than expected. Only six weeks earlier it had raised money at 230p a share. Yesterday the stock recovered 19 to 96p.

Traders also gossiped that next week Biofuels will announce the date of its full-year results - thought to be July 14. They speculated that management would not release a date unless it had firmer news on sales contracts. Dealers are hoping it will also confirm that completion of its Teesside plant, which has had delays, now remains on track.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/06/11/cxmktrep11.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/06/11/ixfrontmarkets.html

wilbs

Biofuels Corporation PLC
13 June 2005


Biofuels Corporation plc

Notification of results


Biofuels will announce results for the year ending 31 March 2005 on 14 July
2005.


There will be a presentation to analysts at 10.30 that morning at the offices of
College Hill, 78 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6HH.


13 June 2005

Enquiries:


College Hill 020 7457 2020
Mark Garraway


wilbs

Dear Stockdog,

thanks very much for your feedback/ideas

regards

Sean Sutcliffe

Short and polite - just.

Don't take it personal , it seems like a standard reply.

Biofuel increasingly competitive if oil surge lasts
Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:32 AM ET

By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS (Reuters) - Biofuels would be increasingly competitive if crude oil prices, which are back near all-time highs, were to go beyond $60 a barrel, officials at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

Soaring oil prices have encouraged major consumers worldwide to sharply increase their use of "green" biofuels, made from sugar cane, vegetable or grain oils.

But in most parts of the world the additional costs for producing biofuels make the fuel uncompetitive without hefty tax rebates from governments.

"Biofuels are getting more competitive due to the surge in oil prices but these would need to be somewhere between $60 and $100 a barrel for biofuels to be competitive without subsidies," IEA biofuel specialist Lew Fulton said after a seminar on biofuel options.

U.S. crude oil futures hit another all-time record on Monday at $59.52 a barrel as worries over fuel demand festered amid limited U.S. refinery capacity.

An exception is Brazil where ethanol, made from sugar cane, is competitive without subsidy when oil prices are at $35 a barrel, said Brazil's ambassador to Paris, Sergio Silva do Amaral.

The IEA renewed its estimate that all biofuels -- ethanol and biodiesel -- had the potential to reach 10 percent of world fuel use for transport by 2025.

But Fulton said a more realistic estimate was that global ethanol consumption should be between four and five percent of gasoline use by the end of the decade.

"That would be a very big achievement but a lot will depend on oil prices," he said.

Last year the world produced about 30 billion litres of fuel-ready ethanol from fermenting and distilling mainly sugar or corn. In oil terms, that's more than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), two percent of global gasoline use.

The European Union last year set a non-binding target of 5.75 percent biofuel content by 2010, but missed a more modest 2 percent target this year; Japan allows the use of up to 3 percent ethanol, but does not require it.

The United States, the world's top oil consumer and No. 2 biofuel producer, set a target of doubling ethanol production to 8 billion gallons by 2012 -- over 500,000 bpd and more than 5 percent of current gasoline use.

wilbs

A major factor could be the Chinese starting off with very high bio-diesel quotas for all the personal car ownership about to happen. They could get DOO to JV with them on planting milliions of hectares of jatropha beans and JV with BFC to build a few large-scale plants - then pass a law to say all private vehicles must use at least 25%-50%(??) bio-diesel. It would also have a massive positive impact on their balance of payments.

Without this, when car-ownership in China reaches 50% that of the West, 5% bio-diesel will not amount to a piss in the ocean (or more aptly a fart in the sky).

IMHO - you tell 'em Wilbs (interesting post btw - almost oracular - good old Sybille)

sd

SHARE MAGAZINE

"BIOFUELS PLANT FINALLY READY TO OPEN by: Susanna Twidale

Investors are anticipating that Biofuels Corp (BFC:AIM) will announce that its Middlesborough plant, which has been hit with delays, will finally be ready to open at the results due 14 July.

There is also speculation that the company will announce it has secured more favourable terms for its refinancing deal with Barclays Bank. The company is thought to be losing money on a poor hedging deal that overestimated future diesel prices and the shares have plummeted from
highs of 311p in March to lows of 70.5p in May. The stock has seen a
resurgence in trade over the last few weeks with investors
hoping that the good news will come and bring with it a
recovery in the share price."

Nice one mm. Ive not even opened my mag yet.

thanks, mm - looking good for Bastille Day? Stormin'!

A bit of a long read but it is sunday!!

Posted on Sun, Jun. 26, 2005


Indiana plays catch-up in biofuels race

State sets goals for ethanol and biodiesel

By Jenni Glenn

The Journal Gazette


Dozens of communities in other states are celebrating the construction of ethanol and biodiesel plants the source of millions of dollars in investment, jobs and added value to farmers crops. But Indiana has been slow to join the party, said Andy Miller, state director of agriculture.

The state has just one ethanol plant and no biodiesel plants, despite the fact that Hoosier farmers ranked third in soybean production and fifth in corn production in the nation last year.

The state unveiled a new strategy last month designed to encourage agribusinesses to manufacture ethanol and biodiesel fuel in Indiana, Miller said. The state Department of Agriculture and Indiana Soybean Board have set the goal of turning the state into the Texas of alternative fuels. The states strategic plan for agriculture, released May 17, set a goal of producing 100 million gallons of biodiesel and tripling ethanol production in the state by 2010.

Several proposed plants could help steer Indiana in that direction. Indiana Bio-Energy LLC plans to open a $125 million ethanol plant in Wells County by the end of next year. A subsidiary of the Louis Dreyfus Group has proposed a $100 million agricultural-industrial park in Kosciusko County that could eventually include an ethanol plant and a biodiesel plant larger than any currently operating in the country.

Miller said Indiana has been slow to enter the renewable energy field. The state is the last major corn state to have a major presence in the ethanol industry, he said. The states lone ethanol plant, New Energy Corp., is in South Bend and can produce 102 million gallons of ethanol a year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade association for ethanol producers.

I wont say were late to the game in ethanol, but were pretty close to being late, Miller said. This markets still got a lot of upside potential for growth.

The fuel, made from processed corn, is either mixed with gasoline or used alone to power cars. The nation produced 3.41 billion gallons of ethanol last year, a 21 percent increase from 2003, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.

Biodiesel use also is growing quickly, said Jenna Higgins, spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board in Jefferson City, Mo. Biodiesel is made from soybean oil and then blended with diesel fuel to power trucks. An estimated 25 million gallons of the fuel was blended for use last year. Higgins said that was a large increase from the 500,000 gallons used in 1999.

Demand for biodiesel is expected to rise from 30 million gallons in fiscal year 2004 to at least 124 million gallons a year, thanks to a tax incentive that makes biodiesel price- competitive with diesel fuel, according to the Indiana Soybean Board.

Most of the plants producing the renewable fuels are in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and other states in the western Corn Belt, said Wells County farmer Randy Plummer, an investor and member of the board of directors for the Wells County ethanol plant. The first plants headed to the western Corn Belt states, in part, because their corn prices tend to be lower than those in Indiana, said Plummer, who is also a Wells County commissioner. The states also offered incentives such as tax breaks to encourage plant construction, he said.

Progress has been slower in Indiana, Plummer said.

Were, Id say, coming out of the gate, and the rest of the horses are about halfway around the track, he said.

Iowa, the national leader in ethanol and biodiesel production, has 16 ethanol plants and three biodiesel plants, said Lucy Norton, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Seven more ethanol plants and another biodiesel plant are under construction in the state.

To draw those plants to Iowa, state groups organized monthly meetings where experts spoke to potential plant owners about the financing, technology and other aspects of constructing a plant, Norton said. The Iowa Department of Agriculture, the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Department of Economic Development set up the meetings held from 1999 to 2001. Norton said the meetings made the difference in persuading people to invest in plants in Iowa.

It takes a partnership with the state and the industry, she said.

A supply of inexpensive corn is important for making an ethanol plant profitable, said Monte Shaw, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Fuels Association. Iowa ranked first in corn production and second in soybean production last year, according to Indiana Agricultural Statistics, the state division of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Indiana has the ingredients for a successful renewable fuels industry, Director of Agriculture Miller said. The state has the grain needed to support plants, as well as the railroads needed to transport renewable fuels to market.

Indiana is closer to the crucial East Coast market than other Midwestern states, Plummer said. Ethanol is used widely in New York and Connecticut to replace an octane additive in gasoline banned by the states. The states proximity to this market helped make the Wells County plant a viable investment, he said.

The state is staying involved in the development of new forms of bio- energy and improvements on existing technology, Miller said. Purdue Universitys research on bioenergy will help the state stay on the front end of new advances in the field, he said.

Despite being a little late on some of the initiatives, we can still be a leader going forward, he said.

Miller declined to provide an exact number of proposed plants in the state, but he said he hears almost daily from new groups interested in building plants

Not all of the proposals will come to fruition, Plummer said, although he is confident his group will be able to raise $25 million in grants or in the form of second-lien loans, which can be paid off after the buildings mortgage, to pay for the Wells County plants construction. Indiana Bio-Energy LLC conducted a feasibility study to make sure the plant would be profitable and increased the proposed size to ensure it would be, Plummer said. Some of the proposals may not make it past the feasibility study because they would not make money, he said.

The amount of capital needed to enter the industry is growing, Miller said. Large corporations, such as the Louis Dreyfus Group that may build in Kosciusko County, are entering the industry in increasing numbers while the number of investor-funded plants is falling, he said.

Indiana is working to increase the use of renewable fuels as well as production. About 3 percent of the gasoline used in the state has some ethanol blended in it, Miller said. The Department of Agricultures goal is to increase that to 10 percent by 2010.

An increase in usage would raise the price farmers receive for their grain. When consumers demand 100 million gallons of biodiesel fuel, soybean prices rise about 10 cents a bushel, according to the Indiana Soybean Board.

The state already has a convenient way of supplying biodiesel to dealers, the National Biodiesel Boards Higgins said. Countrymark Cooperative LLP, based in Indianapolis, has four biodiesel terminals where the soybean-based fuel can be mixed with diesel directly from a pipeline as it is poured into a truck for transport. There are only 12 such terminals in the country, but dealers prefer to use them instead of mixing their own fuel, Higgins said.

We would consider Indiana a leader in biodiesel because of their strong distribution network and high-profile users, Higgins said. The city of Fort Wayne uses a blend of biodiesel fuel in its diesel trucks.

Most of the biodiesel used in Indiana is manufactured in Ohio or west of Chicago. But there is still room in the growing renewable fuels market for Indiana to become an industry leader, said Michael Ladisch, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette. Ethanol use alone has the potential to increase by 50 percent in the future, he said.

The best time to get in the business is when ethanol is expanding, he said. In other words, the market is increasing, so this is the time to get market share.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ethanol production

Indiana lags behind several of its Midwestern neighbors when it comes to ethanol production. Indiana ranked eighth among the states in terms of ethanol production capacity, calculated in million of gallons produced a year, as of January.

Iowa1,262.5

Illinois816

Minnesota523.6

Nebraska523

South Dakota456

Wisconsin210

Kansas149.5

Indiana102

Missouri100

Tennessee67

Michigan50

North Dakota33.5

New Mexico30

Texas30

Kentucky25.4

California8

Wyoming5

Ohio4

Colorado1.5

Washington0.7

Total4397.7

Source: Renewable Fuels Association

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/11990974.htm

wilbs