INEOS Aims to Lead European Biodiesel Market with 2 Million Tons by 2012

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Planning to become Europe’s leading biodiesel supplier, Ineos Enterprises will construct a new plant at its Grangemouth, Scotland refinery site to produce a minimum of 500,000 tons a year when it goes online in 2008. The company will also make investments in biodiesel production at its sites in Antwerp, Belgium; Lavera, France and Wilhelmshaven or Cologne in Germany. The first target in its production strategy is to achieve an annual output of at least 1.2 million tons by 2010 and 2 million tons by 2012.

The $168 million Grangemouth project investment will be followed by a $130 million investment to double biodiesel output at the company’s site at Baleycourt in France. With ten years experience in the sector, Ineos already holds a strong position in the French biodiesel market.

The Scottish project has received support in the form of a $17 million regional selective assistance award from the Scottish executive. By 2010, approximately 5% of all fuel sold at UK gas stations will be required to come from a renewable source. Governments across Europe are promoting the increased use of green fuels and a significant growth in demand is projected.

Harry Deans, CEO Ineos Enterprises said, “We are aiming to become the first truly pan-European supplier of biodiesel to meet the significant growth in demand predicted for Europe. We will build world-scale plants using the latest technology to produce high quality products that will be highly competitive in all market conditions.

The Ineos strategy will see the company’s new production facilities located at the heart of key demand centers “The Ineos operations within these centers would provide us with cost-effective infrastructure, a ready made and fully integrated customer base in addition to access to some of Europe’s very best transport networks. Building on this platform, our intention is to drive our capital investment with an aggressive business development strategy to capture significant market share across Europe. We are already in discussions with a number of oil majors and supermarket giants to secure this additional demand,” sad Deans.

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