Oil firm exec hits jatropha promotion

Fernando Martinez, chairman of Eastern Petroleum Corporation and founding chair of the Independent Petroleum Companies Association, said the Department of Energy has not conducted an extensive testing of jatropha-based biodiesel on vehicles in the country.

"Show me the process to the point that jatropha diesel can make a car running," he dared energy officials.

Martinez told reporters in a recent interview here that jatropha planting has become a fad although he doubted its benefits to farmers.

It's like a pyramid scheme were farmers are lured to buy jatropha saplings and plant it but the market for the seeds is uncertain, he added.

Jatropha seeds are crushed to produce the oil, which is processed into biodiesel.

Martinez claimed that, "diesel vehicles designed in the country could not run on pure biodiesel, unlike in Europe."

Last January, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the Biofuels Act which requires at least one percent biodiesel blend within three months of its implementation, rising to two percent within two years after the law takes effect

Despite scoring jatropha, Martinez, whose company in partnership with Chinese-owned firm Guanxi State Farm is eyeing a P1.8 billion ethanol plant here with cassava as raw material.

Under the biofuels act, oil companies are mandated to blend five percent ethanol in gasoline products two years after the signing.

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